Fleeting Love from Tosa Late Night Diary, c. 1984-1990
Gelatin silver print
Image: 11 × 16 ½ in
Sheet: 16 × 20 in
Edition 2/10
Signed on verso
January 5, 2026
In the mid-1980s, Japanese photographer Kazuo Sumida began exploring the entertainment district in Kochi City at night. He used an infrared strobe-flash to illuminate his nocturnal photography, a technique which had the benefit of being undetectable to the human eye, while also giving the subjects of his photos a ghostly phosphorescence.
His late-night wandering brought him into contact with his estranged uncle, who performed in drag at Bar Nobara, a downtown gay bar which operated, out of social necessity, as a private club. The rekindled connection with this uncle gave him access to Bar Nobara's cloistered subculture, and resulted in deeply intimate, mysterious, and beguiling photographs like this one.
