Notes Japan-Photo.info

Edo Pop - The Grafic Impact of Japanese PrintsExhibition at the...

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:03:05 +0100

Iona Rozeal Brown: One for the money 2

Kitagawa Utamaro: Love for a Farmer's...

Gajin Fujita: Crew, 1972

Kabukidō Enkyō: Ichikawa Yaozō III...

Edo Pop - The Grafic Impact of Japanese Prints
Exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Oct 30, 2011 - Jan 8, 2012

Full image titles:

Iona Rozeal Brown, American, born 1966
One for the Money, Two Faux the Show (Still Pimpin’), after Katsukawa Shun’ei’s The Actor Ichikawa Komazo III, 2006
Acrylic, gold leaf on panel

Kitagawa Utamaro, 1753/54–1806
Love for a Farmer’s Wife, 1795–96
Color woodblock print (nishiki-e)

Gajin Fujita, American, born 1972
Crew, 2002
Spray paint, acrylic, and gold leaf on wood

Kabukidō Enkyō, active ca. 1796
Ichikawa Yaozō III as Umeōmaru, 1796
Color woodblock print (nishiki-e)

Tokyo Rising (Part 1) - On Japanese Pop/Underground Culture in...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:49:00 +0200

Tokyo Rising (Part 1)

- On Japanese Pop/Underground Culture in Tokyo after Fukushima

Trailer for the 1971 movie: “Throw Away Your Books, Rally...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:41:00 +0200

Trailer for the 1971 movie: “Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets” by Shūji Terayama.

Shūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer.

In 1967, Terayama formed the Tenjō Sajiki theater troupe. Terayama with his Tenjō troupe was a crucial and highly influential part of the Japanese Avant-Garde at the end 1906s.

Also in 1967, Terayama started an experimental cinema and gallery called ‘Universal Gravitation,’ which is in fact still in existence.

Terayama published almost 200 literary works, and over 20 short and full-length films.

By the way, the photographer Issei Suda worked as cameraman for the theater group, before he became an independent photographer and published his major series “Fûshi Kaden”.

Issei Suda: Yokohama, Sankaien Garden, Plum Blossom Festival(from the series: ‘Fushi Kaden’), 1977

And Daido Moriyama was well connected to Shūji Terayama. Moriyama’s very first book “Japan: A Photo Theater” had a foreword by Terayama. And the book included several images of the troupe.

Daido Moriyama: Japan Theater, 1967

"Photography Calling" Exhibition - but Japan isn't heard...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:27:00 +0200

This weekend the Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany, openend a major exhibition on photography:

“Photography Calling!”

The exhibition includes ca. 30 photographers from the USA and Europe from the 1960s until today.

“Photography Calling!” is a great title, but based on the title I guess Asian photography and especially Japanese photography didn’t make enough noise, because it wasn’t heard by the curators of the show.

Daido Moriyama: Japans Scenic Trio. Mutsumatsushima, 1974 ©Daido Moriyama

Aim of the show is:

The exhibition PHOTOGRAPHY CALLING! conducts in a contrapuntal dialogue with the works of younger photographers a discussion on the documentary in photography. The exhibition poses questions concerning traditions, relationships and differences: how, for example, does Diane Arbus formulate her question about the middle of American society in New York towards the end of the 1960s, and how does Boris Mikhailov answer this question in Germany of 2008? How do Robert Adams and John Gossage depict the changes in the American landscape under the effect of civilization – And what is the contemporary answer to the male voyeuristic gaze in Winogrand’s photographs of New York women? Is there an Eastern European answer, albeit from a different time and tradition, to the self-portraits of Lee Friedlander of the 1960s and 1970s?
[Quote: Sprengel Museum]

The exhibition which wants to “conduct in a contrapuntal dialogue on the documentary in photography” follows the old world view until the end of the 1990’s that ignored Asian photography, and especially Japanese photography, completely. The above formulated questions show, that American photographers are being seen almost exclusively as the primary inventors of new positions in documentary photography.

Of course Arbus, Adams, e.g., are major photographers whose work was extremely influential, but to talk about documentary photography while ignoring ‘game changers’ like Shomei Tomatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, Daido Moriyama, Yutaka Takanashi and Nobuyoshi Araki is in my opinion an outdated view on the history of photography.

Shomei Tomatsu: ”Bottle Melted and Deformed by Atomic Bomb Heat, Radiation and Fire, Nagasaki”, 1961 ©Shomei Tomatsu

I am currently involved in the preparation of several...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:09:00 +0200

Daido Moriyama: Stray Dog, 1971

Yutaka Takanashi: Toshi-e, 1961

Nobuyoshi Araki: Mythology, 2001

Shomei Tomatsu: Eros, Tokyo 1969

I am currently involved in the preparation of several exhibitions on Japanese photography. Two of them will open this Friday in Cologne.

“Japan 4 - Nobuyoshi Araki, Daido Moriyama, Yutaka Takanashi, Shomei Tomatsu” @Galerie Priska Pasquer
+
“Daido Moriyama” @Jablonka Pasquer Projects

See more at Blog Galerie Priska Pasquer and updates at Facebook

Punctum - new Asian photo magazine, produced in India First...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:09:00 +0200

Punctum - new Asian photo magazine, produced in India

First Issue
Massoud Hossaini, Munem Wasif, Mimi, Kushal Ray, Rony Zakaria, Ken Kitano
Suyeon Yun, Sovan Philong, Jes Aznar, Wei Leng Tay, Po-I Chen, Omar Kasmani
and Loan Nguyen.

Sunday Photo/ Floating #5 - Kiyoshi Koishi: “Drunken...

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:00:05 +0200

Sunday Photo/ Floating #5 -

Kiyoshi Koishi: “Drunken Dream, Fatigue”, 1936

Sunday Photo/ Floating #4 - Asako Narahashi: Kawaguchiko, from...

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:00:00 +0200

Sunday Photo/ Floating #4 -

Asako Narahashi: Kawaguchiko, from the series: “half awake and half asleep in the water”, 2003

Sunday Photo/ Floating #3 - Shomei Tomatsu: Untitled...

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:35:14 +0200

Sunday Photo/ Floating #3 -

Shomei Tomatsu: Untitled (Hateruma-jima, Okinawa), from the series “The Pencil of the Sun”, 1971
©Shomei Tomatsu

Floating #2 Ikko Narahara: Two garbage cans, Indian Village, New...

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:30:56 +0200

Floating #2

Ikko Narahara: Two garbage cans, Indian Village, New Mexico”, 1972, from the series “Where Time has Vanished”

Floating #1 Lieko Shiga: “Chiako”, from the series...

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:48:00 +0200

Floating #1

Lieko Shiga: “Chiako”, from the series “Canary”, 2007

"Trying to find a publisher for a photobook in 2011 is probably a little bit easier than a unsigned..."

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 10:16:12 +0200

“Trying to find a publisher for a photobook in 2011 is probably a little bit easier than a unsigned musician trying to find a record label in 2011. Because people still buy photobooks, people don’t buy records anymore.”

- Moby on the photobook industry
Video interview with Moby by British Journal of Photography

Moby on the photobook industry - British Journal of...

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:28:28 +0200

Moby on the photobook industry - British Journal of Photography.

Musical artist Moby discusses the current state of the photography book industry as he releases his first photobook - Destroyed - in his 35-year career as a photographer. He talks with British Journal of Photography’s news and online editor Olivier Laurent.

The unbearable lightness of floating - Natsumi Hayashi

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:51:00 +0200

Natsumi Hayashi, photographing herself seemingly floating in the air.
A nice idea, well executed.

See more at her blog:
yowayowa camera women diary

A recent interview with the photographer:
Wheeee! Floating photographer captures herself ‘levitating’

"On Contemporary Photography One thing that I find fascinating about what’s happening right now –..."

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:55:57 +0200

“

On Contemporary Photography

One thing that I find fascinating about what’s happening right now – and I suspect that this will gain importance in future – is that rather than photography representing the capture or culmination of something, it’s becoming a form of instigation. For me, the most interesting works coming out right now – even if they’ve been formalized in the form of a book, an exhibition, a print or a website – represent the beginnings of something. They’re not simply an end result, or the remnants of something that has past and been preserved in silver gelatin, emulsion, or ink; they’re starts, sparks, or seeds from which many other things might grow.

”

- Aaron Schuman, in: Foam Magazine: What’s Next? A Search into the Future of Photography

Ai Weiwei: June 1994, 1994 Exhibition “Ai Weiwei -...

Mon, 30 May 2011 23:43:08 +0200

Ai Weiwei: June 1994, 1994

Exhibition “Ai Weiwei - Interlacing” at Fotomuseum Winterthur, until August 21, 2011

Artist talk with Yutaka Takanashi at Le BAL, Paris

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:56:00 +0200

This Sunday I will have an artist talk with Yutaka Takanashi, the co-founder of the legendary “Provoke” group.

Rencontre avec Yutaka Takanashi
Le BAL, Paris
May 22, 3pm

Yutaka Takanashi: Untitled, from the series “Toshi-e” (Towards the City), ca. 1971

Rencontre-discussion avec Yutaka Takanashi et Ferdinand Brueggemann, historien de la photographie japonaise.

Yutaka Takanashi présentera la série Machi, exposée au BAL. Initiée en 1975, cette dernière rompt radicalement avec le style flou, surexposé, expressionniste, en noir et blanc, des années Provoke.

Co-fondateur du légendaire magazine Provoke en 1968, Yutaka Takanashi est une figure majeure de l’histoire de la photographie japonaise.

Avec Machi, Takanashi se concentre sur l’un des quartiers les plus anciens de Tokyo, Shitamachi, où le monde traditionnel est peu à peu envahi par les signes de la modernité.

Entrée libre
Réservation : contact@le-bal.fr

Yutaka Takanashi: Mita, Shiba, 3 minutes photo booth, 5-31-1 Shiba, Minato-ku, 1977, from the series “Machi”

Lecture on Japanese photography and the atomic bomb @Le Bal, Paris

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:43:00 +0200

On Saturday, April 30, I will have lecture at Le Bal:

Beyond description - Japanese photography and the Atomic bomb.
Remarks on the series “11:02 Nagasaki” by Shomei Tomatsu, “Kamaitachi” by Eikoh Hosoe and “The Map” by Kikuji Kawada.

Symposion: “JAPON : REPRÉSENTER LA CATASTROPHE”
April 30 - May 1, 2011
@ Le Bal, Paris

Pendant deux jours, LE BAL invite historiens, anthropologues, critiques et créateurs à s’interroger sur la représentation par les artistes japonais et les media des catastrophes naturelles, technologiques, politiques qui ont marqué l’histoire du Japon.

Shomei Tomatsu: “Atomic Bomb Damage: Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945”, 1961

Sakura #7 (final) Satomi Shirai: Sakura in Central Park, from...

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 12:10:00 +0200

Sakura #7 (final)

Satomi Shirai: Sakura in Central Park, from the series “New York in My Life”, 2007

@Satomi Shirai

Sakura #6 Lieko Shiga: Blue Spring, from the series...

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 10:00:06 +0200

Sakura #6

Lieko Shiga: Blue Spring, from the series “Canary”, 2007

@Lieko Shiga