About the work

Who's not familiar with the concept of soul mates when it comes to romantic partnerships? But l don't think it's as common to recognise the depth of the bond that can exist between a parent and child. The best way l can describe it is to say it's as if a part of my soul was removed and used to form another human being. 

We are in sync in a way that is difficult to quantify. We vibe, we speak the same language. We don't just communicate with words we read each other's emotions. You could say that we resonate on the same frequency. We bond, engage and communicate through play. I have a background in child care and have studied in depth the importance of play and l practice it with my child as often as possible. The images l have captured are a reflection of that.

My son plays at being a model and l play at being a stylist and photographer. We laugh a lot, pull faces and put on silly voices, we imagine together, we create and communicate and connect. 

When we play together it's a safe space, an accepting, loving, non-judgmental place, a place of understanding. We create our own world with our own rules. 

I can be a perfectionist and my anxious nature can overwhelm me. But I fight this, l remind myself to let go and have fun. l try to focus on the process, the experience and not the outcome. Spending time with my son helps me do this, he reminds me what's important, and he helps me to live in the moment. He teaches me as much as I teach him. There is a two-way respect. We influence each other and egg each other on, l try to be a good influence, but good is so subjective, all l can do is my best. 

To me, the nature of art and artist is to recognise, acknowledge and accept duality. I don't know how common this ability is, but I recognise and appreciate it in my son. We let it inform our work. We are okay with stepping out of our comfort zones. We are willing to break the rules. We are willing to challenge stereotypes. We are willing to say, “You know what l like it even if you don't”. We are brave enough to have opinions and to express those opinions. 

There are far more cultural expectations around what's appropriate for a male child than one might think. I haven't gone out of my way to be contentious, but many of society's norms feel restrictive to me so I would feel like a hypocrite and a fake to impose them on my child. 

People frequently mistake my son for a girl, it doesn’t bother him and it doesn’t bother me. I don’t go out of my way to style him in a feminine way, in fact, I try very hard to add traditionally masculine elements to his outfits and will often make adjustments to his clothing with this goal in mind. The fact is that long hair, full lips and large eyes are stereotypically female traits so I don’t blame people for mistaking him for a girl. He has enjoyed having long hair, so I’m not going to force him to cut it in order to make someone else feel more comfortable. As I said it’s all about accepting and being comfortable with duality, with this and that, black and white, feminine and masculine, creepy and cute we embrace and accept both and it brings us closer together.  

I think Japanese culture is perhaps very aware and open to the concept of duality which is one of the main reasons that we both find it so appealing and influential.