Koji Kitagawa
Koji Kitagawa is a Tokyo-based photographer. His photographic practice centers on series-based works, created through an array of imagemaking processes and manipulation techniques. He is a member of the SPEW collective, a group of Japanese photographers who’s output is based on a wide range of activities revolving around photography – other members include Daisuke Yokota and Naohiro Utagawa.
Stranger Than Paradise
Deadbeat New Yorker Willie and his sidekick Eddie, embark on a strange and unpredictable road trip across the Eastern United States when his unwelcome teenage cousin Eva unexpectedly drifts into their lives.
V:
What film has had the most impact on your practice, and how has it directly influenced your work?
KK:
Stranger Than Paradise, it taught me about independence and the advantage of being photogenic.
V:
There is a sense of curiosity, obsessiveness, and wonder in your practice – what’s one film that’s influenced this aspect of your work?
KK:
Running on Empty, it showed me the beauty and universality of living life on your own terms.
Love and Death
Boris Grushennko, a neurotic Russian villager is conscripted into the Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Alongside his cousin (whom he is in love with) he formulates a patriotic plot to assassinate Napoleon.
V:
You work integrates a variety of image making techniques, is there one film that’s influenced the way you approach the images you create?
KK:
Love and Death by Woody Allen, it taught me creativity.