Oyako Day - Background

Background

The name “Oyako” means “parent and child” in Japanese and was originally the name Bruce Osborn gave to a series of photographs he had been working on since 1982. “In the process of photographing hundreds of parents and children it has become my life’s work,” says Bruce. The idea for this series came to him when he was assigned to photograph punk musicians for a magazine just before the birth of his first child, at a time when he was preoccupied with thoughts of becoming a father. These thoughts converged with the assignment to create the first Oyako photo shoot where he decided to photograph the rockers with their parents to bring forth the differences in lifestyle and fashion between generations. “It was the coincidence of being asked to photograph punks and being an expectant father that gave birth to the idea of Oyako,” Bruce Osborn stated in an interview with Olympus. To his surprise and delight, these pictures transcended the scope of his assignment and touched on the deeper subject of family relations. By focusing on this core relationship over 1,000 photo-shoots, he has been able to chronicle the changes Japanese society has undergone over more than twenty-five years. With years already invested in the project, in 2003 Bruce and his wife decided to take the series to the next level by using the concept of a public photo shoot to start a day where people would put their attention on parent-child relationships.

In an interview with Olympus in 2006 Bruce shares the insights he’s gained through Oyako Day:

“I’ve discovered just how beautiful the Japanese parent-child relationship is. It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but I think parent-child relationships in the West are more animal-like, emphasizing being strong and independent, where in Japan this relationship is more plant-like and gets intertwined like roots. I think people in other countries could benefit by learning more about Japanese culture and its special parent-child relationship. The parent-child bond is the basis of all human relations, and the world would be a better, more peaceful, place if families got on well with each other. But it takes more than just words to get this message across.”