July 4, 2007 at 0:33 · Filed under Exhibition
Since decades the major trend of Japanese photography is definitely ‘straight photography’ with all its derivations (street photography, cityscapes, portraits, e.g.). A lesser role plays conceptual photography like the works by Hiroshi Sugimoto or Naoya Hatakeyama. But even these photographers usually use their cameras in a traditional way, that is they don’t (overly) manipulate their works during the production process.
Maybe it’s just my selective perception, but in contrary to the ’straight’ approach on reality the experimental, manipulative use of the medium photography as a tool for to produce works of art is not very wide spread in Japan.
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March 8, 2007 at 2:53 · Filed under Exhibition, Publication
Did anybody see the exhibition Berlin - Tokyo / Tokyo - Berlin at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo last year? I wasn’t neither able to see the exhibition in Tokyo nor at the second venue in Berlin afterwards. The reviews in the German press were very positive (except on the contemporary part of the show) while the main English review of the exhibition in a Japanese newspaper was quite crushing: “Berlin/Tokyo: Invitation to a car wreck”.
Some better examples
While I cannot say anything about the exhibition, I found the catalogue to the exhibition very weak compared to previous exhibition catalogues about the relationship between the West and Japan. Just take for example the early publication “Japan und Europa 1543-1929″ (Berlin, 1993) which contains many elaborate essays as well as detailed descriptions of/ explanations to every piece exhibited; or take the more recent exhibition catalogue “Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500 - 1800” (Victoria &Albert Museum, London 2004) which contains very insightful essays on the early encounters between the West and Japan. I have seen the show and I kept it in my mind as a very important contribution to our knowledge about the cultural exchange in the early stage of the contact between the Far East and Europe.
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February 11, 2007 at 1:25 · Filed under Photographer, Publication
A few weeks after reading the interview with Joe Nishizawa in Pingmag about his book “Deep Inside” I ordered the book at Amazon.jp. When the book arrived I was surprised to get a completely different book from the seller and I realized that I had mixed up the titles of the books “Deep Inside” by Joe Nishizawa and “Japan Underground” by Hideaki Uchiyama.
Both books deal with the vast and complex underground constructions which provide essential life lines and life support for Japanese mega cities like Tokyo or Osaka. And it seems that this topic is of great interest for Japanese photographers as well as for the Japanese audience. Hideaki Uchiyama already published three volumes of “Japan Underground” (2000, 2003 and 2005) and his first volume was reprinted last year, and Nishizawa’s book created a remarkable buzz in the (international) blogsphere due to the interview in Pingmag. But the best known series about this topic is from a third photographer, Naoya Hatakeyama, who published his series “Underground” in 2000, the year when Nishizawa published his first volume.
Naoya Hatakeyama: “Underground”
I look around but my sight is completely shut out. No light stimulus. My eyes are open but seem closed. Yet my eyeballs keep moving, trying harder to look and see and see, in vain. [...]
I go down to the stream of central Tokyo, surrounded by concrete. This is a humanless world. Only five meters below the ground, it seems to me light-years away. [...]
The mold that grows in a limestone cave hundreds of kilometers away from Tokoy grew, too, in the underground darkness upstream of this river. Is it still there, I wonder? Reflecting my light, it shined like glassware. But it remains unaware of how beautiful it is.
Quote: Naoyama Hatakeyama, “Underground”
Hideaki Uchiyama: “Japan Underground”
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October 31, 2006 at 0:29 · Filed under Unspecific
I know, I did not write much in the last four weeks, but I was very busy recently and last week had to prepare my lecture for the symposium on Japanese Photography in Winterthur (see my previous post). The symposium was booked out, well organized and very interesting with topics from Japanese post war history to Japanese photobooks. Additionally great Japanese food - not the usual Sushi :-) - was served and DJane Hito provided a nice soundtrack to the party afterwards.
I am planning my to publish my lecture in the future, but it will take some time since it will be a part of a larger essay on contemporary Japanese photography. Anyway, below you will find my abstract for the symposium with some images I showed during my talk (in no particular order).
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October 10, 2006 at 22:43 · Filed under Exhibition, Photographer, Publication
On occasion of the exhibition “Shomei Tomatsu - Skin of a Nation” at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Museum hosts the symposium
“Photography and Lifestyle in Japan from 1945 until Today”
on Friday October 27.
I am invited to give a lecture on “Contemporary Japanese Photography and Lifestyle” and my talk is schedule just before the party. :-)
By the way, during the party there will be a slide show arranged by the Mariko Takeuchi, Tokyo: “20 new Japanese Photographers”
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