The Poignant Elegance Of Mayu By Sayuri Ichida

‘Mayu’ is a photo series shot by New York-based photographer Sayuri Ichida, featuring professional ballet dancer, Mayu Oguri, striking irregular poses in atypical locations.

Ichida uses the human form in an abstract manner, photographing Oguri—both the title and subject of the series—to portray the common struggle of being foreign in a large and lonely city such as New York. The resulting images are nothing short of gorgeous. Each frame is delicately considered in terms of composition and color palate, and each dance pose is conspicuously juxtaposed to the empty surroundings as a discernible nod to themes of exhaustion, loneliness, and displacement. There’s much more feeling in these images than in a stereotypical dancer press shot—evidenced by Idicha’s simple explanation of how the moment came together: “Everything she does as a dancer is so beautiful, so I asked her to not be too beautiful.”