In 1974, Japanese Photographer Captured His Wife Every Morning From the Window of Their Apartment as She Left for Work

“From Window” by Masahisa Fukase (1974) is a series of photographs capturing his then-wife, Yoko Wanibe, leaving for work each day from their apartment in Tokyo. Taken from their window, the images show Yoko in various moods and poses, blurring the lines between real life and performance. This series showcases their life together and highlights how being constantly photographed affected their relationship.

Fukase obsessively photographed the people (and cats) around him, expressions of love which wound up as destructive. As Fukase confessed in 1982, he became plagued by the paradox of “being with others just to photograph them,” resulting in a profound, existential loneliness as his compulsive shooting of those close to him ended up driving them away. “He has only seen me through the lens,” Yoko said bitterly of her snap-happy husband. “I believe that all the photographs of me were unquestionably photographs of himself.”

Convinced that Fukase was with her solely for the sake of photography, Yoko signed divorce papers in 1976, plunging the photographer into a deep and dark depression. Although a persistent elegiac impulse throbbed throughout Fukase’s practice thereafter, From Window stands as a brilliant and high-spirited tale of one man’s all-consuming love. As for Yoko, she is as bright as ever: off to work, slowly slipping out of Fukase’s grip, belonging – as she does – to no one.