The New York Times has an interesting audio visual piece on Japanese photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki, who is suddenly gaining a bit of interest again in the US, for his documenting of couples having sex and the peeping toms who observed them in Tokyo parks in the 1970s.

“What is so striking … is that everyone is crossing the line. The couples who engage in sex in public, the peeping toms who tresspass on that intimacy, he photographer who has betrayed his acquaintances’ trust, and of course, us, so willing to look at what was not meant for us to see.”

Yoshiyuki’s exhibition at Tokyo’s Komai Gallery in 1979 was an underground success. For the exhibition the photos were blown up to life-size, the gallery lights were turned off, and visitors to the gallery were given flashlights. But shorly after the show, fearing recriminations, Yoshiyuki destroyed the prints.

The photos, simply entitled The Park, resurfaced last year, with the publication of The Photobook: A History, Volume II, by Martin Parr. Parr writes:

“The Park is “a brilliant piece of social documentation, capturing perfectly the loneliness, sadness, and desperation that so often accompany sexual or human relationships in a big, hard metropolis like Tokyo.”

Gallery link: Yossi Milo Gallery

Via Funkalicious