I have two photographs in this exhibition – Ray Krotser from Familar Men, and Pat Diggs from Women en Large. Pat’s photograph is Curator’s Choice and featured on the poster above advertising the exhibition.
Pat was a close personal friend who recently died. I miss her deeply. Ray was 92 when his picture was taken over 25 years ago. He was an anthropologist at UC Berkeley. When asked to pose, he commented that at 92, he was rarely asked to do anything new.
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Hiroko HAGIWARA recently told me that Junko FUKAZAWA died on March 3, 2025, of the long-term effects of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Junko was one of my collaborators on the Women of Japan project. She and Hiro have been best friends since they were 12. Both of her Women of Japan photographs have been exhibited in Japan, Europe and the US.
Junko was a brilliant feminist scholar, and contributed the essay below to the project, which is available here online in both Japanese and English.
Junko FUKAZAWA, from Women of Japan
As far as I know, Junko is the first of my Japanese collaborators to pass away. I will miss her.
Junko’s essay
Laurie asked me, “By the way, what should I say you do?”
Here it comes.
What is your specialty? What do you do?
I can never give a good answer.
Even though I am over 50 years old, I hesitate as to how I should answer these questions.
The I who has been rejected by existing specialties, and the I who has refused to enter such specialties. Stuck between those two spaces I have continued to engage in my daily work and activities. I thought that by doing so I would eventually find my natural place. But I must soon accept the conclusion that this seems not to be the case.
I feel a disconnect and an incompatibility between myself as a woman and the system that blankets Japanese society.
I went to an arts college and majored in oil painting. What controlled that arena was a male-dominant sense of values centered on sexuality and an atmosphere that extolled expressions of sexual violence against women. I could hardly stay in a place like that, even though to leave meant I was branded with the labels of failure, defeat, and dropping out.
As the years passed since I left my “specialty,” I have come to realize that the space that I have entered is much wider and deeper, and that the people I have met are far more enriching.
A friend I met a few years ago asked me to go with her as “just a woman” when she went to seek her just conclusion by going to confront the person who had assaulted her in the past.
“Just a woman.” I thought that was wonderful and an honor.
I still need to pursue much discipline before I can become a tried and true “just a woman.”
Junko FUKAZAWA and Hiroko HAGIWARA, from Women of Japan
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You can now follow Debbie on Bluesky, an almost sane social media platform.
Follow Laurie’s Pandemic Shadows photos on Instagram.
