Gueiko e Maiko

The Japan project was very particular. I was in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo a few months before coming to NY (2000-2001). I photographed Maikos (young geisha apprentices) preparing in their traditional settings and at some social events. When they decide to become maiko, the girls integrate into a house and family that has a history and tradition, a collection of clothes and objects passed down by their predecessors, full of codes and symbolism; in the same environment, they follow a series of rituals of preparation and transformation: the makeup, the hairstyles, the way they dress, how they move, how they act…