This portfolio had been selected by W.M Hunt for the Weekend portfolios. David Favrod is part of the photographers exhibited in Hyères so we decided to publish it again.
GAIJIN (Japanese word meaning the foreigner)
My name is David «Takashi» Favrod. I was born on the 2nd of July 1982 in Kobe, Japan, of a Japanese mother and a Swiss father. When I was 6 months old, my parents decided to come and live in Switzerland, more precisely in Vionnaz, a little village in lower Valais. As my father had to travel for his work a lot, I was mainly brought up by my mother who taught me her principles and her culture. When I was 18, I asked for double nationality at the Japanese embassy, but they refused, because it is only given to Japanese women who wish to obtain their husband’s nationality.
It is from this feeling of rejection and also from a desire to prove that I am as Japanese as I am Swiss that this work was created. “Gaijin” is a fictional narrative, a tool for my quest for identity, where self-portraits demonstrate the intimate and solitary relationship that I have with myself. The mirror image is frozen in a figurative alter ego that serves as an anchor point.
The aim of this work is to create “my own Japan”, in Switzerland, from memories of my journeys when I was small, my mother’s stories, popular and traditional culture and my grandparents war narratives.
FESTIVAL
Hyères, International Festival of Fashion and Photography
April 26 – 29, 2013
Villa Noailles
83400 Hyères
France
EXHIBITION
April 18 – May 25, 2013
Galerie La Petite Poule Noire
12 bd des Filles du Calvaire
75011 Paris
France
