Category — Photography

photo via Futatsumata-san’s blog

I would love to get my hands on School Road, a new photo book published by Plancton. The idea was to photograph paths and roads all across the country that children use to commute to school. Some of the fondest memories I have of growing up in the outskirts of Tokyo were the walks and bicycle rides to school. There were huge slopes and odd tunnels and I still murkily recall some common faces I would see each morning.

Although my commute was not quite as lush and rural as the picture above, it wasn’t too far off. Volume 1 covers 13 prefectures with each prefecture receiving the treatment of a photographer who grew up there. Tokyo is covered by Saori Tao.

click to enlarge

If you will indulge me in a walk down memory lane, last year around this time we featured the work of Japanese photographer Kanako Sasaki in conjunction with the Shiseido Art Egg awards. Well, her work is now available at Azito, the online gallery of contemporary Japanese art! Kanako received her MFA in photography from our very own SVA in 2004. Kanako is a storyteller. She photographs herself in sites of historical significance, using history as an alternate landscape.

Japanese business men, with their dull suits and carefully orchestrated combovers (also known as barcode hair styles) have been the butt of jokes, both in media and in colloquial chit-chat, for as long as I can remember. Younger generations call them ossan, or boring old man, and ridicule their obedience and lack of independence. There was even a popular comedy sketch that depicted a Japanese business man (played by Teruyoshi Uchimura) who gets repeatedly transferred by his company to the most outlandish outposts. But being the slave that he is, he reluctantly accepts each new assignment. In the final episode his company sends him on an Armageddon-like mission to save the planet, obviously without enough fuel to return to earth.

Anyway, the story—call it the Parable of Salarymen—has been told many times, with varying aims. But in its latest iteration by photographer Yuki Aoyama, a lift-me-up is provided to businessmen across Japan. Solaryman (published by Piebooks in November 2009) is a photo-documentation of actual Japanese businessmen escaping from the mold that has characterized them for decades through the simple action of jumping. The photographs are quite humorous but at the same time filled with a restrained desperation, as if whispering to the reader, look at me… I have a personality. The intent of the book is to capture the hidden laborers who carry the world’s second largest economy on their shoulders and to make people think, instead of sweaty, balding old man, ah funky dude in a suit, or something like that.

Wow! It’s great to see iconic Japanese photographer Yasumasa Yonehara’s home featured on The Selby (which is now offered in Japanese, by the way). Cluttered chic with a touch of erotica. That is exactly how I imagined his home would be. There’s a great (and long) interview over on Mekas if you would like to learn more about Yonehara and the explosive influence he has had on kogyaru culture  and the teenage-media industry as a whole.

Japanese photographer Asako Narahashi’s first major retrospective, Coming Close and Getting Further Away, opened last week at the Tokyo Art Museum in Chofu (near my old high school!) Narahashi began he career in 1989 right after graduating from Waseda University’s fine arts program. After maintaining a presence in Japan all the way through the early 2000s, Narahashi won the hearts of critics abroad with her widely acclaimed series,  “half awake and half asleep in the water,” which was shown in Toronto, New York and Australia.

If you’ve never been to the Tokyo Art Museum now is a great time to go. Designed by Ando Tadao, the structure is indeed an exemplary work of Tadao that features his characteristic minimalist concrete look. To compensate for the lack of images from Narahashi, I have included some striking ones of the Museum.

Related:
half awake and half asleep in the water

Considering how much the Japanese enjoy quality bath time, I’m surprised someone hasn’t come up with this idea earlier. Bath Art is a collaboration between creative director Kenjiro Sano (see previous post) and photographer Mikiya Takimoto. Sano created a series of 35 x 29 inch limited quantity prints of Takimoto’s photos that stick onto any conventional tile surface. Your relaxing bath now gets transformed into an optimal space for art appreciation. They are available for purchase (6,000 yen) HERE.

Nice packaging as well!

In case you were curious, Mikiya Takimoto’s work has been recognized in numerous domestic and international competitions such as the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He is the author of BAUHAUS DESSAU (2005) and SIGHTSEEING (2007).

We’re almost through the month of July! I hope everyone has had a nice summer so far. We’ve been to the beach, grilled on our roof and played in the river but I would still like to take little huey camping!

The photo is by Japanese photographer Shino Chikura. Check out more of her work online and over at CIBONE.

This is going to be a slightly nerdy post but I was so excited when, just yesterday, Kyoto’s Ryukoku University unveiled a digital archive of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Consisting of over 20,000 photographs, manuscripts, notes and other artifacts, this is easily the most extensive database of memorabilia related to the director and his work, as well as a fascinating look behind the scenes.

The interface is surprisingly user-friendly, however it’s completely in Japanese. But if you are able to recognize some movie titles in Japanese you may be able to navigate around.

Check out these images from the set of The Seven Samurai…

…and this one from Rashomon…

…and these of Kurosawa in New York walking around Rockefeller Center! Right where I work!! AAHHH!

via Mainichi Daily News

“To view the current show you must climb a rickety little bridge, then crawl through a small hole smashed through the wall. As you come through the other side, you see a large installation resembling a traditional Kyoto rock garden.
It’s not until the large garden rocks begin to shift that one realizes that each of them is actually a part of a human body, contorted to fit above the ground.”

I’m super intrigued! That was John Jay describing the current show at the Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo. The 4-person Austrian collective Gelitin launches a full-blown assault on the serenity of the Japanese garden by ambushing you with the nude form of the human body. The whole beauty (form) vs vulgarity (function) thing is an interesting concept and reminds me a lot of the work of Spanish photog David Blazquez, who’s human furniture shots I came across on French Blast.

New Yorkersdon’t feel left out. You too can get in on the Gelitin awesomeness over at Deitch Long Island City.

via The Moment

Click on over to ARTINFO for a sneak peak of Japanese photog legend Hiroshi Sugimoto’s new work. I’ve  always had the sense that his photographs occupied the realm of scientific process more than art, which is perfectly understandable given the documentary nature of photography. And with this new body of work he seems to be exploring this idea more than ever.

“Lightning fields 013″

left: “Roofline of Lacock Abbey, most likely 1835–1839″
right: “Arrangement of Botanical Specimens, 1839″

Related:

• Hiroshi Sugimoto’s seascapes at the Gagosian
• New work by Hiroshi Sugimoto