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\nSome couple try all kinds of romantic tricks to keep love alive for longer, but Japanese photographer\u00a0Haruhiko Kawaguchi takes a more literal approach \u2013 he wraps people in plastic wrap, sucks out the air and takes photos of their distorted bodies.
\nThe bizarre images of people huddled together in\u00a0weird positions, in vacuumed\u00a0plastic wrap may look like stills from a\u00a0a sado-masochistic practice, but they are\u00a0Haruhiko Kawaguchi way of showing and preserving the love between two people. His project, \u201cFlesh Love\u201d, is pretty straightforward. Two people, usually couples, are \u201cpackaged\u201d in a\u00a0100 by 150 by 74 centimeters plastic bag the artist buys from the Internet. After carefully arranging their body parts so he can get the best shot, Kawaguchi uses an old vacuum cleaner to suck out all the air and make the subjects look like a pack of packaged meat you buy at the supermarket. It takes about 10 to 20 seconds for hit to take the photographs, during which time the shrinkwrapped couple has to endure the pressure and lack of air. But it\u2019s all in the name of love.
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\nThe magic happens of the kitchen floor of Hal\u2019s Tokyo apartment, under the watchful eyes of the artist and his American girlfriend, Katherine. Photo subjects are covered with lubricant so the skin doesn\u2019t burn when the plastic presses upon it as all the air is sucked out. Still, the sensation isn\u2019t very pleasant \u2013 the plastic seals off your nostrils, presses on your eyelids and the ears pop as if you\u2019re diving into deep water too fast.\u00a0Kawaguchi says he\u2019s so far photographed about 80 couples for Flesh Love, and there have been some accidents. It\u2019s the men who panic the most, he says. Four or five of them started struggling for air while in the bag, and one even peed in his pants, but none of them were able to break the plastic bag from the inside. But there have been no major incidents, and the artist always has oxygen sprays nearby.
\n\u00a9 images\u00a0Haruhiko Kawaguchi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"