This Photographer Captures His Painful Goodbye to His Father

“In April 2014, I took a photograph of my father, who was visiting my house in Kamakura. A doctor had recently diagnosed the 83-year-old with stage IV lung cancer but I hadn't told him yet. I remember that... it was the first time I took a photograph of my father when I knew a secret about him, which he didn't know himself. Over the next three years I continued taking photographs of my father. Each time I clicked the shutter I was sending a quiet message to him: ‘Please don’t die, Dad…’”

-- Shin Noguchi

My father, 85-years-old, playing with Kotoyo, Sagamihara, May 2016.My father, 86-years-old, after making food, Sagamihara, May 2017.My father, 86-years-old, with 9-year-old nephew KenKen who has periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), Sagamihara, May 2017.“This may be the last meal of his life he finished eating…’, my mother told me while showing a photograph she recorded, Sagamihara, July 2017.My father, 87-years-old, Sagamihara, July 2017.My father, 87-years-old, attended by my mother, Sagamihara, July 2017.My family listens to his condition from a doctor, in the hospital, Sagamihara, July 2017.My father, 87-years-old, was able to get home for the first time in three weeks, but was repeating the same thing the whole day, Sagamihara, August 2017.My father, 87-years-old, with Hiking and KenKen, Sagamihara, August 2017.‘Good night dad, see you soon,’ My father, 87-years-old, Sagamihara, August 2017.This was the last shot I took before my father died…A few weeks later I received an emergency call from my family and rushed to the hospital, but my father had already passed away, a while before I arrived. To the hospital morgue, Sagamihara, September 6 2017.In the hospital morgue, Sagamihara, September 6 2017.In the crematory, Sagamihara, September 2017.Out of the crematory, Sagamihara, September 2017.When we came back to my parents’ house from the crematory, TV was broadcasting a special program about 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, Sagamihara, September 2017.Kotoya, praying for grandpa, Sagamihara, September 2017.Thank you, love you, and miss you, Dad.HARUO NOGUCHI June 28 1930 - September 6 2017.Shin Noguchi born 1976, is an award winning street photographer based in Kamakura and Tokyo, Japan.