Love’s Labors: Labor is often described as being of the body, and economists have spent centuries calculating formulas to explain its value. But there is a lacuna in all of these calculations, the invisible and the ephemeral—love. How do we calculate the
Osamu James Nakagawa transforms image making into a ritual, participating in the cyclical experience of life and death. He becomes a bridge between generations, using a visual language to reunite his ancestors with his daughter. In this way, he outlines the meaning of his own life while acknowledging its passing—he is never more than a shadow while his family is rendered in careful hues, lines, and shapes. Kai I and II is an ongoing series that began at the intersection of his father’s death and daughter’s birth. Eventually, he photographed the death of his mother as well. Dying is not easy. Nor is growing up or growing old. As his mother lay dying, he photographed her last breath—the exchange was a gift: her last labor and his love.
