August 30, 2006 at 21:08 · Filed under Exhibition, Photographer
While I wrote my last post about Tomoko Sawada I became curious about her early works which I haven’t seen yet. Katsuya Ishida the owner of MEM gallery had been so kind to send me three of her early works currently exhibited at his gallery. The early works, done while Sawada was still a student at the Seian College of Art and Design, seem to be more playful than her later conceptual series, but they are already very strong in my opinion.
PS: For visitors of Osaka MEM gallery is definitely a place to go. IMHO it’s one of the best photo galleries in Kansai
August 20, 2006 at 21:16 · Filed under Exhibition, Photographer, Publication
This is my second post about Tomoko Sawada about whom I wrote two years ago already. Currently she has two exhibitions at KPO Gallery at Kirin Plaza and at MEM gallery in Osaka (until Sept. 3).
“Masquerade” at KPO shows Tomoko Sawada in the guise of a few hundred different self-created identities. The exhibition includes the series “OMIAI” (2001), “Cover/Face” (2002) and “Recruit” (2006). A new book by Sawada with the title of the exhibition “Masquerade” is due to be published soon. In conjunction with the exhibition at Kirin Plaza, MEM gallery exhibits “Early Works” from 1996/97 which have not been shown to the public before.
A review in the Japan Times pointed me to the exhibition at KPO.
“All of them are me,” she said in a 2004 interview with NY Arts Magazine, “I don’t try to be someone else.”
That being so, her body of work is a phantasmagoric play of self-imaging that is volatile and restless in the infinite adjustments of pose, clothing, hair and makeup.
Read the rest of this entry »
August 12, 2006 at 13:48 · Filed under Exhibition, Photographer
10 questions to Rinko Kawauchi about photography
Recently I wrote a short notice about Rinko Kawauchi’s latest publication “Rinko Diary“. For those who want to read a little bit more about her work, the online magazine PingMag from Tokyo has an interesting interview with Rinko on occasion of her recent exhibition at Photographer’s Gallery, London.
Rinko Kawauchi, one of Japan’s most popular female photographers today, created a sensation across the contemporary photography world in 2001 when she simultaneously released three critically acclaimed photography books: Utatane, Hanabi and Hanako and won the 27th Kimura Ihei Photography Award. Rinko’s publications have continued to amaze the photography world with three more books: Aila, the eyes the ears and Cuicui. She won not only the hearts of the young generation in Japan, but Rinko Kawauchi is said do be the next upcoming photographer - even in London. Being a great fan of Rinko’s work, I jumped on the opportunity to talk to her during her exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery in London
[Quote: PingMag]
Rinko Kawauchi: “AILA”, “The eyes, the ears”, at Galleria CarlaSozzani, Milan
The best exhibition of Rinko’s work I if have seen yet was in 2005 at Fondation Cartier, Paris. It was a big and very well presented show which featured a large selection of photographs from the AILA series (2004) and from “the eyes, the ears” (2005) as well as a beautiful slide show of “Cui Cui” (2005). This exhibition will be opened in September at Galleria CarlaSozzani in Milan (Sept. 10 - Oct. 29) [the gallery website doesn't seem to work properly at the moment].
August 7, 2006 at 20:27 · Filed under Exhibition, Photographer, Publication
If you happen to be in Tokyo area I would highly recommend a side trip to the Kawaski City Museum to see the exhibition about “Yônosuke Natori and Nippon Studio (1931-1945)” (until Sept. 3).
Yônosuke Natori (1910-62) was a professional photographer, founder of “Nippon Studio” (“Nippon Kôbô” in Japanese) and publisher of the international, multilanguage magazine “Nippon” (Japan). With his studio and the magazine Yonosuke Natori introduced to Japan cutting-edge photographic techniques and design that he studied in Germany.
At the end of the 1920s beginning 1930s there were several epicentres for modern photography in Japan, in cities with Avant Garde culture like Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and Ashiya. All photographers – mostly amateurs - were organized in groups like the “Tanpei Shashin Club” (Osaka), “Ashiya Shashin Club” (Ashiya) or “Shinkô Shashin Kenkyûkai” (New Photography Research Society), Tokyo.
Yônosuke Natori didn’t belong to any of these groups. 1928 at the age of 18 he went to Germany, where he studied arts an crafts in Munich. From 1931 he worked as a photo journalist for German newspapers and returned to Japan as a contract photographer for Ullstein Verlag, a publishing house behind several newspapers and magazines in Germany.
Following the Japanese habit not to work alone he founded the group “Nippon Kôbô” in 1933 (after an assignment in China). “Nippon Kôbô” became a core group of modern photo journalism in Japan, with photographers like Kimura Ihei (who left in 1934 to found a new studio with other photographers), Ken Domon and Masao Horino (both joined in 1934).
In 1934 Natori founded the magazine “Nippon” (Japan). The magazine was designed to promote Japanese culture to the West and was published in English, French, German and Spanish until 1944. Utilizing designs and techniques from German magazines “Nippon” was much higher in quality than other magazines of the same kind in prewar Japan, but became a very rare item soon, since most of its copies were distributed overseas.
The exhibition is the result of a joint research of curators from Fukushima, Tokyo and Kawasaki. It gives the first comprehensive overview over of the careers of Yônosuke Natori and his young photographers and designers in the 1930s-40s, with 400 magazines, printed works, photographs and documents on display.
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Recommended books:
Natori Yonosuke and Nippon Studio (1931-45) [Jap.]
Natori Yonosuke. Japanese Photographers Vol. 18 [Jap.]
Also:
NIPPON vol. 1
NIPPON vol. 2
NIPPON vol. 3
