This annotation was created by Emily Chapman.
Isao is that you?
When taking self-portraits, Isao often retreated alone to the garden and used the timer. He rarely looked directly at the camera, refusing as it were, to look himself in the eye and re–enact the style of studio pose he was used to. Instead, he developed a style of self–portrait where he looked at a point beyond the camera, usually to his right. This reminds viewers, one of whom was of course Isao, that there is much the camera cannot see. It is also possible that Isao’s middle-distance stare was the result of his own discomfort as a photographic subject, and he found himself able to dislodge this awkwardness by not looking directly at the camera.
