Letting It All Hang Out: Motoyuki Daifu’s ‘Project Family’ Shows the Messy Inner Workings of His Family Home

Having become accustomed to seeing the edited versions of people’s lives on Facebook, Instagram, etc., Yokohama-based photographer Motoyuki Daifu’s photos, glaringly honest to the point of hilarity, of his crowded and messy family home are even more jarring. An exhibition of work from Project Family, subtitled as “The family is a pubis, so I cover it with pretty panties,” opens at Little Big Man Gallery in Los Angeles on July 19. The work was on view at Little Big Man’s booth at LA Paris Photo, and the large prints riveted my gaze. Daifu’s and, perhaps more crucially, his family’s willingness to share details of their home life most would be mortified to show is fascinating, appealing, and endearing. Daifu aptly describes his home, where he still lives with seven people and a cat, crowded into a small apartment: “My mother sleeps every day. My dad does chores. My brothers fight. There are trash bags all over the place. Half-eaten dinners, cat poop, mountains of clothes: this is my lovable daily life, and a lovable Japan.”

All photographs © Motoyuki Daifu. The exhibition at Little Man Gallery will be on view from July 19 to August 31, 2014. A book of the work was published by Dashwood Books.

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