JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY an introduction to those photographers you’d be embarrassed not to know about
Introduction
• I’m no expert - just a very basic guide of most well-known well-known Japanese Japanese • Overview of photographers comprehensivee • Certainly not comprehensiv • Attempt to show different schools and philosophies
Introduction
• I’m no expert - just a very basic guide of most well-known well-known Japanese Japanese • Overview of photographers comprehensivee • Certainly not comprehensiv • Attempt to show different schools and philosophies
UEDA AND DOMON
Shoji Ueda
• 1913-2000 g ained • Opened his own studio at 19, but only gained worldwide attention in the 1970s. • Surrealist, compositional based photographer. • Well known for Tottori sand dune photos.
Shoji Ueda
Shoji Ueda
Ken Domon • Documented aftermath of Word War 2. • Looked at society and lives of ordinary people. • Realist - a snapshot that is “absolutely not dramatic”. • Rejected posed and “artistic” photography. • Strokes in 1960 and 1968 - confined to wheelchair, and photographed Buddhist temples.
Ken Domon
Ken Domon
VIVO
VIVO - overview
• Short lived photo agency formed in 1957 by Shomei Tomatsu, Kikuchi Kawada, Eikoh Hosoe and Ikko Narahara. • Seminal “junin no me” (eyes of ten) exhibition. • Personal views of Japan. Renounced realism.
VIVO photographers - key publications • Eikoh Hosoe - Kamaitachi. • Shomei Tomatsu and Ken Domon - Hiroshima Nagasaki Document 1961. • Kikuchi Kawada - Chizu.
Eikoh Hosoe
Eikoh Hosoe
Eikoh Hosoe
Shomei Tomatsu
Shomei Tomatsu
Shomei Tomatsu
PROVOKE
Provoke - overview • Late 1960s to mid 1970s. • Short lived, low cost photography magazine. • Founders - Kohi Taki, Takuma Nakahira, Takahiko Okada, Yutaka Takanashi and Daido Moriyama. • Klein and Tomatsu influenced many of these photographers. • Aim - to create a new photographic language that could transcend the written word. • Rethinking photographic conventions: “are, bure boke” - rough, blurred, out of focus. • Push processing, use of Olympus Pen - half-sized negatives. • Conceptualism over realism. • Chance and the unknown to be revealed through the photographic process.
Provoke photographers - key publications
• Bye Bye Photography - Daido Moriyama. • Hotel, Shibuya - Daido Moriyama. • For a language to come - Takuma Nakahira. • Toshi-e - Yutaka Takanashi.
A few words and a video on Moriyama
• Initially influenced by William Klein • But, with Provoke, developed a style that is truly his own • Without Moriyama there may never have been Anders Peterson, Michael Ackerman, Jacob Aue Sobol and even Yusuf Sevincli!
Video intermission
Bye Bye Photography - Daido Moriyama
Bye Bye Photography - Daido Moriyama
Bye Bye Photography - Daido Moriyama
For a Language to Come - Nakahira
For a Language to Come - Nakahira
Toshi e - Takanashi
Toshi e - Takanashi
POST-PROVOKE Araki, Yoshiyuki, Kurata and Naito
Nobuyoshi Araki • One of Japan’s most well-known photographers • Influenced by Provoke’s Moriyama and Nakahira • “Because of their visceral engagement with their subject matter, especially the subject of the street and the expressive character of individual lives” • My Wife Yoko, A Sentimental Journey • Leading proponent of “personal photography” that can be seen in young contemporary photographers such as Nagashima and Hiromix • Women queue around the block to be photographed by him - his preference is for the every day woman, the housewife • Bondage photos
Nobuyoshi Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki
Kohei Yoshiyuki • 1979 exhibition - “The Park” • A “soft-core voyeurs manual” • 35mm infrared film and infrared flash • Pushes boundaries between photographer, spectator, viewer and participant. • “Loneliness, sadness and desperation that so often accompany sexual or human relationships in a big hard metropolis like Tokyo.” - Martin Parr
Kohei Yoshiyuki
Kohei Yoshiyuki
Kohei Yoshiyuki
Seiji Kurata • One of my favourite Japanese photographers • Flash-Up for many years a collectors object - recently reissued by Zen Gallery • Hard, immersive, fearless Weegee like images - fights, crime scenes, portraits, hostess clubs • Pictures from Tokyo’s most notorious district in the 1970’s Ikebukuro • Journal style articles accompany the pictures - to provide context and authenticity
Seiji Kurata
Seiji Kurata
Seiji Kurata
Masatoshi Naito
• Very difficult to find information about him • 1970s - Ba Ba Bakuhatsu (Grandma Explosion) a collectors item • Interest in Folkloric traditions that can be seen in Lieko Shiga’s work today
Masatoshi Naito
Masatoshi Naito
Masatoshi Naito
YURIE NAGASHIMA AND HIROMIX
Yurie Nagashima • Received urbanart award in 1993 for her “Kazoku” series of pictures of her and her family in the nude which some commentators argue is a contemporary take on Fukase Nasahisa’s project of the same name. • Araki nominated her for award. • Compared to Nan Goldin. • Concerned with family, gender, identity, sexuality and censorship.
Yurie Nagashima - Kazoku
Yurie Nagashima - Kazoku
Yurie Nagashima
Hiromix • Pioneer for female photographers in Japan. • Won 1995 Canon New Cosmos award as a teenager. • Championed by Araki. • Self portrait heavy, snapshot aesthetic. Colour. • “I take photos of what I like.” Claims she is influenced by no-one and has “no particular theme”. • Participant and observer of working class youth culture. Her subjects “don’t expect anything from the future.”
Girl’s Blue - Hiromix
Girl’s Blue - Hiromix
Girl’s Blue - Hiromix
POST NAGASHIMA AND HIROMIX
Ume Kayo
Ume Kayo
Ume Kayo
Ume Kayo
Ume Kayo
Motoyuki Daifu
Motoyuki Daifu
Motoyuki Daifu
AND SOME OTHER FAVOURITES
• Jun Abe • Rinko Kawauchi • Lieko Shiga • Daisuke Yokota
Jun Abe
Jun Abe
Rinko Kawauchi
Rinko Kawauchi
Rinko Kawauchi
Lieko Shiga
Lieko Shiga
Kohei Yoshiyuki
Daisuke Yokota
Daisuke Yokota
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
• Importance of the print and the photo book • Very few share their work online or even have websites • Photographers on the whole are very humble • Very much an in person community • Often a surreal and personal view of the world • Sheltered (deliberately?) from outside influence
FURTHER READING AND USEFUL RESOURCES
