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TOSHIHIRO YASHIRO
 
In my work, I explore time, space and energy. I keep the techniques I use as simple as possible, simple enough for anyone to be able to do. Everything influences me.

Born in 1970 in Saitama prefecture, Japan, Yashiro graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1993. His solo exhibitions have included one at the Zeit Photo Salon, one of Tokyo's best-known photography galleries. He also participated in the group exhibition "Lust and Leer: Contemporary Japanese Photography," which traveled to Austria, Denmark and Germany.

During the past seven years, Yashiro has taken photographs of Sento, or public baths, all over Japan. Before the 1970s every town had community bath houses, where conversation and even skinship—like washing each other's backs—took place among children or elderly people from different families. Today many Sento have closed down, due to changing lifestyles and the increasing value of land. One typical feature of many  Sento is a wall painting of Mt. Fuji. No one is relaxing in Yashiro's photographs. Furthermore, the two photographs form sharp contrasts. Although he combines photographs of male and female bathers, the result is not symmetrical. A deliberate quality of artifice distinguishes his works from mere historical or nostalgic records, evoking instead an uncanny sense of frozen time.