Seiichi Furuya

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Seiichi FURUYA was born in Izu, Japan, in 1950. After graduating from Tokyo Polytechnic University in 1973, he left the port of Yokohama to travel to Europe on the Trans-Siberian Railway. He lived in Vienna until he moved to Graz in 1975. There he met Christine Gössler (born 1953) in February 1978. The couple married in May of the same year in Seiichi’s hometown Izu . Their son, Komyo Klaus, was born in 1981. In 1982, they moved to Vienna so that Christine could study drama. In 1984, Seiichi took a job as an interpreter and the family moved to Dresden, East Germany; and then in 1985, to East Berlin.

In late 1982, Christine began to exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia. In 1983, she entered a hospital in Graz for treatment; she had to interrupt her acting studies and has since been hospitalized from time to time. Shortly after noon on October 7th, 1985, the 36th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic, Christine threw herself from a window on the 9th floor of the tenement building where the family lived. Seiichi continued to work as an interpreter in East Berlin until 1987. Afterwards he returned to Graz.

Since 1975, FURUYA has had numerous exhibitions, both in Japan and overseas, at such venues as: Forum Stadtpark (Graz, Austria), Winterthur Museum (Switzerland), Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria), the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Mishima, Japan). He has published several photo books featuring Christine, starting with his Mémoires 1978-1988 (Camera Austria, 1989) and continuing with Mémoires 1995 (Scalo Books, 1995), Christine Furuya-Gössler, Mémoires 1978-1985 (Korinsha Press, 1997), Portrait (Fotohof, 2000), Last Trip to Venice (self-published, 2002), Mémoires 1983 (Akaaka Art Publishing, 2006), Mémoires.1984-1987 (Izu Photo Museum/Camera Austria, 2010), WHY DRESDEN 1984/2015 (spector, 2017).

What’s more, he has been active in a wide range of projects: he was one of the founders of the photography magazine Camera Austria, and has also curated exhibitions introducing Japanese photographers to Europe, such as Daido Moriyama, (Graz, 1980), Shomei Tomatsu: Japan 1952-1981 (Graz, 1984), Nobuyoshi Araki: Akt-Tokyo 1971-1991 (Graz, 1992), Keep in Touch. Positions in Japanese Photography (Graz, 2003).