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).

Abstract: Contemporary Japanese Photography and Life Style
Ferdinand Brueggemann, photohistorian, Cologne

Japanese photography underwent some rapid changes during the 1990s. This was a result of external economic and social factors, as well as of developments within the Japanese culture and photography scene.

After the collapse of the so-called “bubble economy” (1989), a phase of recession began that was to last for over a decade. This had a far-reaching influence on the working world and the social structure of Japanese society. For example, it proved impossible to keep one of the main promises made by the Japanese labour market of lifelong employment with a company, and Japanese women began to question their traditionally allocated roles within the hierarchical, male-dominated social structures. As regards the cultural scene, it was primarily contemporary culture, thus to a large degree the photography scene, that was hit by the recession.

Changes were also taking place within the photography scene itself. Whereas the photography of the “Vivo” and “Provoke” era found itself in an area of conflict between Japanese avant-garde culture, the idea of a (frequently critical) documentation of Japanese society and cultural influences from the West, the theoretical field of reference changed in the 1990s.

A new generation of photographers were now active in a new sphere of influence poised between photography as a free artistic medium and the Japanese pop culture. A critical attitude towards society was primarily (although of course not exclusively) abandoned in favour of issues about individual identity and the description of individual lives.

A particularly incisive phenomenon for Japanese photography was the emergence of “girlie photographers”. Almost overnight, the visual medium, which had been dominated by men until the mid 1990s, was discovered by women, and photography advanced to a central medium of self-expression and means of establishing an identity for these young women.

As a result of the economic recession, the financing of free projects became increasingly problematic for photographers in the 1990s. A solution was found in the acceptance of elements of pop culture into photography for example in terms of the form and content of photo books and the medium now began to oscillate even more strongly between free artistic projects and purely commercial assignment work.

Thus photography succeeded in crossing the narrow borders of a comparatively isolated photo scene: photography books by photographers such as Kyoichi Tsuzuki went into high print runs for a primarily young public.
This change and the new developments in photography should be viewed against the background of the “father generation” (Nobuyoshi Araki et al.), using selected examples withphotographers such as Hiromix, Yurie Nagashima, Takashi Homma, Mika Ninagawa, Masafumi Sanai, Kyoichi Tsuzuki and Rinko Kawauchi.

This photo by Izima Kaoru could be seen all over Paris at the beginning of this month since it was used as the main image to advertise Paris Photo 2004, the most important fair for photography. The photo is from the “Landscape with a corpse” series and it shows the J-pop singer UA killed by an arrow.

Kaoru first published the first parts of this series under the title “Serial Murders of Actresses” in his own fashion magazine “Zyappu”.

“Each installment showed a few photos of a famous actress posed as a murdered corpse in various settings such as a river, beach, or park. A different actress (actors also) is featured each time. The murder victim is always wearing or using famous-brand fashion items. The photos are accompanied by a news article describing the scene of the imaginary murder and the victim.”

Zyappu magazine (1994-99) was unique among the Japanese fashion magazines since it was written completely in western letters. “Zyappu” actually refers to “Jap” a derogatory term for Japanese and Japanese-Americans and shows – like in his “Landscape with a corps” series – Izima’s interest to give something negative a positive notion:

“There can be beauty even in things not usually considered beautiful.” Can a corpse serve as a model for fashion photos? “Why not?” says Kaoru. Corpses are grotesque, but he says “They are beautiful.” Corpses are gross, but he says “They are sexy.” And he concludes, “Murder scenes are erotic.”
[all quotes by Philbert Ono]

Interestingly there seems to be a difference between the perception of the work of Izima Kaoru in Japan and in the west. In Japan Kaoru is highly regarded as a commercial fashion photographer working for magazines and television, while in the west he is perceived and discussed as an artist whose work is exhibited in galleries and museums regularly while his other work is completely unknown.

Izima Kaoru is working on his “Landscape with a corpse” series since 10 years now and I am curios to see what he will show after this longtime project.

PS: The CD “Ametora” by UA is one of my favorite J-pop CD’s.