Hāfu2Hāfu is a thought-provoking photographic project in which photographer Tetsuro Miyazaki investigates what it means to be hāfu, someone who is biracial with one Japanese parent. By portraying and interviewing other hāfu and sharing their unique identity-related questions, Miyazaki creates a dialogue about identity and stimulates self-reflection. He hopes the combination of portraits and questions will result in more acceptance and understanding between Japanese hāfu, their (non-) Japanese family, friends, colleagues, and classmates.

There are already 90 photos and questions representing hāfu from 65 different countries on the project website. Miyazaki’s ambition is to photograph one Japanese hāfu with one other parent from every country in the world. There are 193 countries recognized by the UN, so there are 192 possible combinations.

Miyazaki recently completed a crowdfunding campaign that will allow him to photograph and interview more Japanese hāfu and represent more countries. Backers were offered the possibility to pre-order the photobook he will be making at the end of the project.

During the day, Hāfu2Hāfu can be viewed on monitors inside the ICP Museum and during evening hours, images are literally “projected” onto the windows of the ICP Museum; they can be viewed from the sidewalk outside the Museum and are most visible after sunset. Learn more about Projected.

About the Artist

Tetsuro Miyazaki is a half-Belgian and half-Japanese photographer, currently living in the Netherlands. Growing up in a Japanese-Belgian mixed family, he has called himself hāfu ever since he can remember. His multicultural upbringing had advantages, but he also remembers disliking it and wanting to be “just Belgian” or “more Japanese.” After the birth of his daughter, Yuna, Miyazaki decided to compare his experiences with other hāfu.