Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • Mountain Lifer

Artist Profile: Photographer Keita Inoue Captures Traces of a Solitary Life Interrupted

  • January 17, 2018
  • Mountain Life Media
Total
27
Shares
27
0
0
0
0
0
Total
27
Shares
Share 27
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

It feels like trespassing. Maybe because it is trespassing. We’re in the Bachelor’s kitchen and it’s a mess—upturned boxes, piles of letters and files, clothing, shoes, appliances in unruly piles. The schoolhouse-turned-home is abandoned, and was never cleaned out after its resident died 10 years ago. We may be trespassing, but the house is not posted with signs. The outer door is closed but not locked, and all the windows, save a quarter-pane in the basement, are intact, as is the roof and structure generally. The interior is disordered and musty and the ceiling caved in, disgorging plaster and insulation—but beyond that, it’s as if the Bachelor went away for the weekend, never to return.

Words: Ned Morgan :: Photos: Keita Inoue.

MLBM Winter18 HRBriana copy 1
The school opened in 1907 and closed in 1965. From dates on letters and legal documents, we determined that the Bachelor moved in sometime in the 1990s, before which he lived in Toronto (he emigrated from eastern Europe in the mid-1950s). From the exterior the building appears little changed from its educational days (ie, the bell is still in the bell tower) but inside, the vibe is all Bachelor.
MLBM Winter18 HRBrianc copy
The bottle-cap-and-shell-casing curtain the Bachelor probably made himself (you can’t buy these in stores). The pictures on the wall are mostly aviation and space-program-related—a major preoccupation. In a box we find several photos of military aircraft taken through high barbed-wire-topped fences, suggesting the remote but tantalizing possibility that the Bachelor was a Cold War spy.

I call him “Bachelor” because he was clearly single and because I won’t give you his name, to protect his family’s privacy. I’m in the schoolhouse at an undisclosed location with photographer Keita Inoue, whose work focuses on abandoned spaces—but this house is a bonus. Unlike many of the structures he shoots, it is easily accessed, and it’s full of photogenic material. There’s a story lying in this scattered profusion of papers, photos, postcards, clothes, mementoes and bric-a-brac, if it could be reliably told. Because it can’t, we’ll rely on Inoue’s photography to pick out the richest clues and arrive at a kind of open-ended, endlessly evocative narrative of a life in fragments.

MLBM Winter18 HRBrianb copy
The Bachelor, who according to his passport was born in 1924 and died circa 2007, surely lived through the golden age of the magazine. Hundreds of issues of National Geographic are stacked in order and undisturbed on a shelf, as are the publications of the trade union he belonged to (we determined that the Bachelor designed and built industrial-grade pumps for a living.) This Liberty title may be a surprising addition (“Canada’s Young Family Magazine”) considering some of the other magazines lying about. One reason we’re sure he was a bachelor—apart from the total lack of clues that he ever lived with a woman—is that no married man would possess so many “girlie” publications in plain view.
MLBM Winter18 HRBrian copy 1
A neighbour told Keita Inoue that the Bachelor had a son he never knew, who showed up at the schoolhouse after his father’s death. We could find out nothing further about the son but according to the neighbour, he stayed in the schoolhouse for a period of months. Then for reasons unknown, he left and never returned, leaving these remnants of his father’s life in disarray. I can only speculate that the letters and other documents, including legal forms, were out on the kitchen table because the son was trying to make sense of the life of the father he never knew.
Bachelor
The den with wet bar was probably the site of the liveliest times in the Bachelor’s residence in the schoolhouse. The twin blackboards seem to be the sole holdovers from the classroom days. The writing on the blackboards, much of it bizarre or illegible, probably post-dates the Bachelor. The booze is long gone from the bar, but all the accoutrements remain. 
Bachelor2
More Bachelor pastimes on display here: hunting and fishing, “girlie” graphics, cheap knick-knacks, board games. And over the fireplace, another bottle-cap-and-shell-casing curtain. The eyeglasses on the table match those worn in his last passport photo.

See more of Inoue’s work at leftahead.ca 

You might also like:

MLCM HRb copy 2ARTIST PROFILE: SHAWN HUNT, SHAPESHIFTER
Like his life, Shawn Hunt’s art is a study in contrasts. Country life versus city living, mountains versus ocean, carvings versus paintings, simplicity versus complexity, traditional versus contemporary and family versus self. However, it’s never been about “versus” as conflict. For Hunt, a Heiltsuk artist born and raised on the Sunshine Coast, the juxtaposition has been about creating art that resonates beyond the sum of its opposite components. And his family roots have always led the way… Read more

Total
27
Shares
Share 27
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Mountain Life Media

Previous Article
  • Videos
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • The Great Outdoors

‘My Mountain’ Showcases the Strong Community Surrounding Shames Mountain Co-op

  • January 17, 2018
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
Next Article
  • The Great Outdoors
  • Videos

Video: How to Build an Igloo

  • January 22, 2018
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
You May Also Like
knorthphotography.Beverly-Glenn Copeland-crop
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer

Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Finding the Universal Broadcast

  • Mountain Life Media
  • January 17, 2023
Talon-Pascal-lilWat-feature-crop
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer

Talon Pascal, Culture Keeper

  • Mountain Life Media
  • January 9, 2023
M-Fredriksson-Christina-Lusti-2
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Skiing
  • Women

Christina “Lusti” Lustenberger: Killing It Softly

  • Mountain Life Media
  • January 3, 2023
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Skiing
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Santa Rips

  • Sarah Bulford
  • December 23, 2022
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

Arc’teryx Backcountry Academy is coming to Whistler B.C.

  • Sarah Bulford
  • December 20, 2022
Ricky-Lewon-ski-racer
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Skiing

Ricky Lewon and the Need for Speed

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 9, 2022
Raphael-Zarka
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer

Art vs. Skate

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 5, 2022
TylerRavelle_R_Kimura-1410
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Snowboarding
  • Surfing
  • Women

The Jess Kimura Interview

  • Mountain Life Media
  • November 24, 2022
Featured Posts
  • Fjallraven-Nuuk-Parka-daniel-blom-photo_jacket 1
    Gear Shed: Multisport Winter Roundup
    • January 26, 2023
  • Brian-Hockenstein-surfing-Iceland-water-and-ice-ML 2
    In the Land of Water & Ice
    • January 24, 2023
  • Marie-Pier-Desharnais-A-Womans-Experience-on-K2-flag-crop 3
    Marie-Pier Desharnais: A Woman’s Experience on K2
    • January 23, 2023
  • Paul-Manning-Hunter-Kananaskis-River-surf 4
    Behind the Photo: Rockies Edition
    • January 19, 2023
  • knorthphotography.Beverly-Glenn Copeland-crop 5
    Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Finding the Universal Broadcast
    • January 17, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • Wachs_Fairly-Mellow
    Friday Flick: “Fairly Mellow” at Fairy Meadow Hut
    • January 20, 2023
  • Season-Pass-Skis-and-Splitboard-both
    Gear Shed: New Season Pass Skis + Splitboard Exclusive to evo
    • January 15, 2023
  • Vincent-Colliart-Caroline-Cote-antarctica-sunset
    Canadian Explorer Caroline Côté Reaches South Pole in Record 34 Days
    • January 13, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
ML staff and gear partners highlight the latest jackets, boards, crampons, hoodies, insoles and bindings in alpha order. #Linkinbio to learn more!
Adventures like this one require an inspiring team. @timemmett is a longtime friend, adventure partner and extraordinary human; an explorer, pro climber, surfer, freediver—you name it. @luca.freediver is an incredibly talented freediver, fresh off breaking the Canadian national freediving record (85 metres). The fourth man on the team, @brianhockenstein, is a filmmaker and multi-talented snowboarder always ready to jump into the fray and capture the magic. - words Jimmy Martinello. #Linkinbio to learn more!
We came in search of the connection of the human spirit to both art and adventure, whether climbing from the depths of moulins and ice caves, breaking through ice while paddleboarding fjords, climbing icebergs, freediving between tectonic plates or surfing cold waves.
A thousand and one things could have gone wrong, but she made it to the top:  @mariepier.desharnais is the first Quebecois woman to climb K2.
Mountain Life is a proud member of the @printreleaf_ community. So far we've offset our print by having 1,737 trees reforested since joining in 2019! 🌲
GUESS WHAT! It's FRIDAY! Here's a flick to kick off the weekend for all you warriors.
Behind the scenes of three action photos from ML’s Rocky Mountains edition.
The @banffmountainfestival 2023 Signature Image Search is on🚨
In 1986 @beverlyglenncopeland recorded Keyboard Fantasies using an Atari computer, a keyboard and a drum machine. After releasing it on cassette and selling maybe 50 copies, he went back to writing for Sesame Street and making the odd guest appearance on Mr. Dressup. In 2015, a cassette made its way to Japanese collector Ryota Masuko, a record store owner with a big online presence, who quickly bought, and then sold, all the Keyboard Fantasies cassettes he could find. Record labels worldwide lined up to reissue the hidden gem on vinyl.
MUSIC SERIES TICKET SALE IS NOW LIVE 🗣️
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

ML staff and gear partners highlight the latest jackets, boards, crampons, hoodies, insoles and bindings in alpha order. #Linkinbio to learn more!
Adventures like this one require an inspiring team. @timemmett is a longtime friend, adventure partner and extraordinary human; an explorer, pro climber, surfer, freediver—you name it. @luca.freediver is an incredibly talented freediver, fresh off breaking the Canadian national freediving record (85 metres). The fourth man on the team, @brianhockenstein, is a filmmaker and multi-talented snowboarder always ready to jump into the fray and capture the magic. - words Jimmy Martinello. #Linkinbio to learn more!
We came in search of the connection of the human spirit to both art and adventure, whether climbing from the depths of moulins and ice caves, breaking through ice while paddleboarding fjords, climbing icebergs, freediving between tectonic plates or surfing cold waves.
A thousand and one things could have gone wrong, but she made it to the top:  @mariepier.desharnais is the first Quebecois woman to climb K2.
Mountain Life is a proud member of the @printreleaf_ community. So far we've offset our print by having 1,737 trees reforested since joining in 2019! 🌲
GUESS WHAT! It's FRIDAY! Here's a flick to kick off the weekend for all you warriors.
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.