Author / Ferdinand Brueggemann

Posts by Ferdinand Brueggemann

Contemporary and modern Japanese photography as art is my major interest and I just want to share news and information (mainly) about Japanese photography I find worth to talk about.
by Ferdinand Brueggemann

News from Japan

I didn’t post for a long time, but I will start to post again on Japanese photography from upcoming weekend.

Finally after some years of following the Japanese photography scene from abroad I managed to go back to Japan for almost three weeks at the end of last month.

While it was not the best time to go to Japan – it was very hot and very humid and there wheren’t many interesting exhibitions in the galleries and museums – I was able to meet photographers, curators and gallerists in Tokyo and Osaka. This gave me the opportunity to get a fresh view on the contemporary Japanese photography scene.

Photographer's bar in Golden Gai, Shinjuku/Tokyo
Small photography exhibition in a much smaller bar frequented mostly by photographers (in Golden Gai, Shinjuku/Tokyo). Many photographers keep there their own bootle with their name on it.

In Tokyo I spent a lot of time in book shops for new and rare books and I bought as many photography books (mainly published since 2000) as my credit card permitted :-). The books (ca. 90 kg) are on the way by sea mail and I hope that all parcels will arrive save in September/ October. After having received the books I will introduce the most interesting ones, of which several are/where not available outside Japan.

Anyway, on Sunday I will write my first piece on the situation of photography at Japanese museums which doesn’t seem to be that good at the moment.

[Edit, June 20, 2006]
Recently there was a longer article about the uncertain future of “Golden Gai” where I took the photograph. Daido Moriyama – with whom I had a very nice evening in Golden Gai – was interviewed by the newspaper for the article, since he has been drinking there since decades.
Tokyo Dramatic: Will Golden-gai’s new gilded age last?

by Ferdinand Brueggemann

Moriyama – Shinjuku – Araki

Today is the last day of the exhibition Moriyama • Shinjuku • Araki at Tokyo City Opera Art Gallery. I wanted to write about it much earlier and I contacted the gallery for some more images and information since the website on the exhibition is still not finished yet. Unfortunately I haven’t received an answer and now I am a little bit late.

Moriyama - Shinjuku - Araki (exhibiton poster)

Anyway the information is not completely outdated since there is an accompanying book published, available at Amazon.jp.

Exhibition and book concentrate on one prominent place in Japan: Shinjuku, an entertainment, business and shopping area in Tokyo with the largest red light district, Kabukicho, in Japan. Both artists photographed in this district from the 1960s until today.
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by Ferdinand Brueggemann

Miyako Ishiuchi at Venice Biennale and at Third Gallery Aya, Osaka

Miyako Ishiuchi: Mother, 2002

Well-respected female photographer, Miyako Ishiuchi, who was selected by Commissioner Michiko Kasahara to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale this year, has revealed her plans for the show.
Ishiuchi will present her new “Mother’s” series, a group of photographs documenting her mother, an apparently stong-willed woman who lived through tumultuous times stretching from life in colonial Manchuria in the 1930s to wartime Japan where she worked as a truck driver. Ishiuchi’s tribute will start with a photograph of her mother, but will consist mostly of “portraits” of her clothing and possessions: chemises, combs and other personal effects. It promises to be a deeply personal, unassuming installation.
(source: Japanese Art Scene Monitor )

The series “Mother” is exhibited at Third Gallery Aya (Jp.) in Osaka from today on until February 19. Third Gallery Aya is a very good place IMHO which had a lot of interesting shows over the years.
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by Ferdinand Brueggemann

Kikuji Kawada “Car Maniac”

Kikuji Kawada: Insect on Window, Tokyo 1997 - from: Car Maniac

The current exhibition of Kikuji Kawada’s works from the 1950s/60s I just wrote about reminded me of his more recent works I hold in high esteem: the series “Car Maniac”. I have seen these works for the first time at the Internationale Phototage Herten (Germany) in 1999.
The series was also included in Kawada’s solo exhibition “Theatrum Mundi” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2003 and Kawada published it in his extremely beautiful (and today rare book) “The Globe Theater” in 1998.

Kikuji Kawada: The Flow of Cars, Paris 1997 - from: Car Maniac

I found the images from “Car Maniac” in the web at Nikon Web Gallery with an explanation by the artist:
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by Ferdinand Brueggemann

Tomoko Sawada at MAK, Vienna

Tomoko Sawada - from: Costume

Tomoko Sawada “Desire to Mimic”, at MAK, Vienna, until Feb. 6, 2005

This year was very successful for Tomoko Sawada. She just had her second exhibition at Zabriskie Gallery, New York, she received the prestigious Kimura Ihee Award in Tokyo and the International Center of Photography Infinity Award in the category of Young Photographer. Now she has her first solo show at a museum.
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by Ferdinand Brueggemann

Yurie Nagashima at Scai the Bathhouse and Nadiff, Tokyo

Yurie Nagashima - from: Candy Horror

Over ten years ago when Yurie Nagashima won at age 20 the Urban Art#2 Award (1993) she became almost overnight the first “girly photographer” (onna no ko shashinka) in Japan. She and Hiromix who entered the scene in 1995 became role models for many young Japanese women and inspired them to become a photographer too. Since then the number of female photographers in photography schools increased considerably to around 50%. Both, Yurie Nagashima and Hiromix, talked about themselves and their lives through their pictures, but IMHO Nagashima was and is much more personal in her work not only depicting her friends but also the daily life of her family (including nude photographs of her father and mother).
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by Ferdinand Brueggemann

New on my book table: Ichiro Kikuchi

Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002 (book cover)Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002

Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002

Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002

 

First the design of the book attracted me with it’s hardcover made from pasteboard and a cut out on the cover. The book contains photographs from all over Japan (Hokkaido to Okinawa) taken 1992-2002. Ichiro Kikuchi’s photography is a kind of grainy colour photography with high contrasts and dark shadows which concentrates on unusual views of ordinary, common land/cityscapes.

Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002

Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002

 

I have never heard of the photographer and a short search with google did not help much.
Born 1973, he graduated in photography at the Osaka University of Arts and participated in the “People in the street” project (ningen no machi project). 1995 participation at “New Photographers on stage”, Konica Plaza gallery, Tokyo. 1997 exhibition “Personal Space” at Nikon Salon, Tokyo and Osaka. He is listed in the Database of the Guardian Garden Gallery a leading institution to promote young photographers in Japan.

Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002

Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes, Tokyo 2002

 

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Recommended Book:
Ichiro Kikuchi: Memory Holes. Tokyo 2002