Family

Family╱Yurie Nagashima

In 1993, Yurie Nagashima came to public attention with a series of black-and-white photographs showing herself, her parents, and her brother posing nude together. Created while she was still an art student, the work challenged conventional representations of women’s bodies and the expectations surrounding family portraiture in Japan.

Over the following years, Nagashima continued photographing her family, gradually turning her attention toward the less deliberate moments of domestic life.

The resulting color series, Family, was shown in a 1995 exhibition alongside American photographer Catherine Opie. Three years later, it became a photobook published by Korinsha Press in Kyoto.

Working with art director Masakatsu Saito, Nagashima adopted the familiar structure of a family album, with a horizontal format, spiral binding, and informal arrangements of photographs.

In the book’s afterword, she reflects on the security of belonging to a family and the solitude that comes with recognizing the limits of that security.

These seemingly ordinary photographs carry both experiences. People share rooms, routines, and years of their lives while remaining distinct individuals, each with their own habits and private experiences.

Throughout her career, Nagashima has continued examining family, intimacy, gender, and the ways people represent one another. Family occupies an important place in that ongoing investigation.

Nearly three decades after its publication, the book invites a reconsideration of what a family photograph can reveal, and what remains beyond the camera’s reach.

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