Photo 1: Mei-Mei and Shao Yu Dali, China, 2012
Japanese-born, Paris-based Kiyoshi has been taking these florid portraits of people surrounded by their possessions since 2003
Photo 2: Kumi, Paris, 2016
‘I am interested in history,’ says Kiyoshi, ‘and how it is always told by someone. Sometimes it’s a myth, sometimes an anecdote’
Photo 3: Jean-Marie, Paris, 2011
Jean-Marie is a writer specialising in the history of rock music
Photo 4: Kana and Edouard, Paris, 2012
Kiyoshi finds her subjects through ads placed on posters and online. She chats to them about their lives, their passions and their homes before taking their portrait
Photo 5: Sakura and Kazuhiro, Tokyo, 2015
Kazuhiro is a tattoo artist and Sakura is a photographer. They love cooking, live with their dog and two cats and each have the date of their wedding tattooed to their ring fingers
Photo 6: Luna, Ophélie and André Mons, Belgium, 2015
‘I try to make my models look like Buddhas, primitive gods or heroes,’ says Kiyoshi
Photo 7: Nancy, Frédéric, Neuilly-Plaisance, France, 2015
Kiyoshi creates highly staged compositions of the models in their homes or workplaces
Photo 8: Toshihiro Nakanishi, Tokyo, 2015
Kiyoshi arranges her models’ belongings around them in creative ways, underscoring the fictional ways people frame their lives
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