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Anyway the information is not completely outdated since there is an accompanying book published, available at Amazon.jp.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

Izima Kaoru, UA wears Toga, 2003

Izima Kaoru: Landscape with a corpse

Izima Kaoru, UA wears Toga, 2003

Izima Kaoru, UA wears Toga, 2003

 

The photo on the right 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.”

 

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DAIDO MORIYAMA: BYE BYE PHOTOGRAPHY (1972)

Japanese photobooks at Swann auction

DAIDO MORIYAMA: BYE BYE PHOTOGRAPHY (1972)

DAIDO MORIYAMA: BYE BYE PHOTOGRAPHY (1972)

“Farwell Photography” by Daido Moriyama (Shashin yo Sayonara, 1972) is one of a dozen Japanese photography books (others are from Eikoh Hosoe, Jun Morinaga and Ikko Nakahara) being included in the upcoming auction “Photographic Literature” at Swann in New York, Dec. 7. The estimate for the book is 4.500 – 5.500 US$! This is above the price range I have seen in France recently. Even this book belongs undoubtedly to the important photography books of the 20s century – more on Japanese photobooks and their current appraisal in a future post – I wonder what makes this book the second most expensive book in the auction behind a book by Robert Frank. We will see if the auction will confirm the high estimate…

Speaking of prices, during the extremely successful auction “Veronica’s Revenge” two weeks ago at Phillips, de Pury & Company, New York a “Seascape” by Hiroshi Sugimoto reached 27.600 US$ (estimate 10.000 – 15.000 US$).
Phillips, de Pury & Company New York, Veronica’s Revenge (Session 2), 11/9/2004

Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams, 2003

Mika Ninagawa at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo

Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams, 2003

Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams, 2003

Mika Ninagawa at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo

Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams, 2003

Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams, 2003

Mika Ninagawa was born in 1972 in Tokyo. She graduated from the Graphic Design Department at Tama Art University in 1997. In 2001 she received the prestigious Ihei Kimura Photography Award. Mika is mainly doing advertising and fashion photography. Her work was included in group shows like “On Happiness – Contemporary Japanese Photography” (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2003), “Keep in Touch. Positions in Japanese Photography” (Kunsthaus Graz, Austria) and she had solo exhibitions like “Liquid Dreams” (Parco Museum, Tokyo, 2003) and “mika over the rainbow” (Laforet Museum Harajuku, Tokyo) which travelled in Japan in 2004.

Mika is one of my favourite Japanese photographers, working on the borderline between (J-)pop and art photography. The photo is from her book Liquid Dreams.

Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams, 2003 (Cover)

Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams, 2003 (Cover)

Syoin Kaji: Nami, 2004

Syoin Kaji: Nami

Just ordered at Amazon
Syoin Kajii: Nami

Syoin Kaji: Nami (cover)

Syoin Kaji: Nami (cover)

The book and the photographer seem to be very interesting:

Syoin Kaji: Nami, 2004

Syoin Kaji: Nami, 2004

“His works appeal to me like an ethnic music I’ve never heard of.” – a comment by designer Hideki Nakajima. Among 1200 applicants of the 1st FOIL AWARD, Syoin Kajii was selected as a grand prix winner by Yoshitomo Nara. He doesn’t only take photographs of sea wave in Sado island, but also a priest of esoteric Buddhism. He carefully gauge the speed of the wind and level of sea wave, in order to shoot the waves he aims at. The hitch and faith of his works realize spiritual and dynamic photographs. Designed beautifully by Hideki Nakajima, the works are pulled together as a magnificent and refined photobook.

Syoin Kaji: Nami, 2004

Syoin Kaji: Nami, 2004