mandoflex

I had time last weekend to go to Ebisu for the Rinko Kawauchi show at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

The show Illuminance , Ametsuchi , Seeing Shadow (ends June 16, 2012) is worthwhile, but not without its problems. Some of the lovely Illuminance prints have a matt unappealing glare due to bad antireflective glass.
The videos are a curious supplement (at best) and take up too much space IMO.
The Seeing Shadow & Ametsuchi series are close to the photographer’s heart but fails to spark anything in me.

The good parts are the Illuminance series (except for the matt glass on some prints), the Iridescence series and the contact sheets which interestingly don’t have the usual character of opening a window to the work process, but rather they do what the videos fails to do (well); they bring an interesting time dimension to the Illuminance series.
An exhibiting worth the time I you live in Tokyo.

I bought the catalogue (2500 yen+tax) only because it has reproduction of her contact sheets plus a translated interview and a journal. I don’t care for the video captures and prints across the gutter – you can find better books if you need an introduction to her work. 

Mount Takao is a popular destination for Tokyo residents. 1 hour from central Tokyo and you are in the middle of nature (but be prepared to share it with many others).

I have been quite busy during the past month. Not that much of interest has happened but Hanami - or cherry blossom viewing - is always worth a post.

This year I went to see the Ghibli Museum (again) on April 7th - the weekend where the cherry trees went into full bloom in Tokyo.

Ghibli Museum is located in Inokashira Park which is an immensely popular location for Hanami.

Tip: If you are on the lookout for a good location for a Hanami picknic, consider the lawn right behind the Ghibli Museum shown in this video. It is much more peacefull (relatively) that the circus around the lake in the central part of the park.

This is not a photography blog, but since it was priviledged to be mentioned on Tokyo Camera Style and got a lot of followers on that account, I will use the opportunity to add a few notes on my photography related activites during the past couple of weeks. It may be of interest to my new readers - welcome and thanks for reading.

Tsutaya - a popular video/cd rental chain - has a large flagship store targeting a more mature audience in Daikanyama. Their selection of books and publications is impressive. There is a good selection of Photobooks as well, both Japanese and imported. They claim to have the largest selection of English language magazines in Tokyo and they are probably right.

Upstairs there is a lounge where you can read vintage books and magazines while eating and drinking- including some photobooks. Most are for sale. If you have a spare 1,000,000 yen you can aquire a first edition of Araki’s Sentimental Journey (and no! you cannot flip through this one while you drink coffee).

On a side note: The original Kamawanu shop - my favorite source of Tenugui - is located in Daikanyama - don’t miss it:

Back on track:

Inspired by the hanami season and bookshop visits, I wanted to secure a copy of Lee Friedlander’s Cherry Blossom Time in Japan while it is still available and affordable. It has been on my Amazon wishlist forever. I paid a vist to the photobook shop Shelf in Aoyama only to find out that they wanted 13,000 yen which is almost 3 times the Amazon Japan price of 4,900 yen. I don’t mind paying a reasonable premium in physical shops but this was crazy! Amazon Japan got my business - and the book is wonderful by the way.

Don’t let the above keep you from visiting Shelf. I found a stack of really cheap Winogrand “Arrivals and Departures” 2 years ago priced a 2.000 yen, so it is possible to find bargains as well.

During Goldenweek, I decided to go visit Hara Museum of Contemporary Art 15 min. walk from Shinagawa st. They are currently showing Hiroshi Sugimoto “From Naked to Clothed” (Until July 1st, 2012). Sugimoto is one of my favorite Japanese photographic artist - his work is largely conceptual and this show is no exception - unless you are only into the street and documentary type of photography, I can higly recommend this opportunity to see some of Sugimoto’s prints in real life.

Below is a view from the museum staircase: Sugimoto 2007 - Stylized Sculpture 067 (Yohji Yamamoto 1991)

When I was done at the museum, I went to visit Map Camera in Shinjuku to buy a used Nikkor AI-S 28mm f2.8 lens - A modest lens judging from the numbers alone, but with 8 optical elements and close range correction (down to 20cm focus) it is an amazing piece of work in glas and metal - Japanese industrial craftmanship typical of late 70’s early 80’s and more surprisingly; still in production and available new at a reasonable price. However, the model has been in production since the early 80’s and can easily be found in very nice condition for around 20,000 yen. 

The Sugimoto theme continued the following day where we went on a day trip to IZU Photo Museum - the museum is designed by Sugimoto in 2009. I didn’t go so much for the exhibitions, but rather for the location. Given it was Goldenweek, there was not that big a crowd. It is not that easy a place to get to, which may also account for the reasonable crowd (by Japanese standards anyway).

Currently the museum is showing 450 photobooks by Nobuyoshi Araki (until July 29, 2012). Yes, the man has published more than 450 different photobooks and he is still going strong!

Going to a photo museum to see photo books may not be the most exciting idea of a photography experience, but seeing Araki’s vast production in one place is a very special experience in its own right. You can flip through all the commercial produced books except a handful which are too valuable. There is also a little show of recent color photographs on display, but the exhibition is mainly about his books.

The photo museum also have a photobook shop with a large selection of new and some vintage books.

The area of the IZU Photo Museum is called Clematis no Oka and holds a number of museums and medium- to high-end restaurants. The artist’s Vangi and Buffet are seriously not my cup of tea, but their museums sometimes host exhibitions that may be of interest if you are there anyway. The Vangi Museum currently features a group show with the title “To Wander a Garden” (until August 31, 2012).

In includes works of a few Japanese photographers including Rinko Kawauchi - and seriously - when you see her 100x100cm prints you are not for a second in doubt why she is the international shining star of the Japanese photography scene. She has been hugely influential in Japan (and elsewhere) since the 90’s and although countless photographers has adopted her style, nobody reach her to the socks.

She has a tumblr (in japanese)

She has an amazing book out in international distribution (English version) (Japanese version)

She will have a show at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography from next weekend (Until July 16, 2012). Don’t miss it if you are in town.

Today/night is Roppongi Art Night 2012. I have a weak spot for the Japanese instruments Sanshin and Shamisen and since Suntory Museum hosted a concert as part of the art event, I decided to go alone - my wife don’t share this interest. There were only 80 ticket for the 13.00 concert and they were given out from 10.00. I was there at 10 and a long line had already formed. I felt lucky to get a ticket (no. 49).

I had 3 hours to kill so I walked to Fujifilm Square to play with the new Fuji X-Pro1. Fujifilm’s Midtown showroom has a little bit of everything from their current product line (cameras to skincare!) an exhibition of historical cameras and 2-3 photo exhibititions. I was please to see a small exhibition of 20 or so vintage W. Eugene Smith prints. One of his strongest works “Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath” was not included - unfortunately. (I never understand why we always have to see  “The Walk to Paradise Garden” - it is borderline slimy and not representative of his vision).
The exhibitions holds strong images from some of his LIFE photo essays of the late 40’s and early 50’s easily worth 30 min. if you are in the neighbourhood.

Next stop was the Aoyama Book Center branch between Tokyo Midtown and Roppongi Hills. They have a wonderful selection of photo books. I bought Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Nature of Light” and a Mook about him published by Brutus.

The concert was excellent; half a Saturday well spent.

Tokyo March 2012

Ginza is known by most as the name of an exclusive shopping area in the central part of Tokyo, however many neighborhoods through-out Japan has adopted the name “Ginza” for their local shopping street - and in Japan today the word has become synonymous with “shopping district”.

Togoshi Ginza Dori was one of the first local streets to incorporate the name and is the longest street of its kind in Tokyo– supposedly.
The street is worth a stroll. Many small “mom & pop shops” gives the street a unique atmosphere – nothing even close to the real Ginza. Deep fried food such as croquette, tonkatsu etc. is popular and can be bought along the street.

The street has a nice photo shop “Photo Kanon”. They are catering primarily to the relative new emerging photo consumers Sha-girls; Girls who has picked up photography and integrated it into their lifestyle. The shop offers serious processing facilities, film and digital, a small gallery space, a small selection of cool vintage film cameras , the usual toy camera selection and a lot of photo accessories with special female appeal. The have a wide range of films available in both 35mm and 120 format (or Brownie film as it is called in Japan).

The café Pedra Branca – a few minutes walk from Photo Kanon, often holds photo exhibitions of female artist in the characteristic sha-girl style. The atmosphere is relaxed and the coffee and sweets offerings are excellent. On week ends afternoons there will often be live music.

I noticed this house under construction when I walked around Machiya last month.

I never imagined that someone would think of copying the aesthetics of cast concrete - but why not? The concrete casting marks you see are in fact pressed into the panels - the same way as we often see wood structures.

…is a term describing slopes from where you can view Mount Fuji in Tokyo.

Once there were many of these places where you could view Mount Fuji from  ground level, but with the boom-year’s rapid growth in building height, these sites has gradually disappeared and only one fujimizaka is left.

However, the days of Nippori no Fujimizaka are numbered. A planned 160m tall residential high-rise in Shibuya will soon block the view of Fuji from the Nippori Slope.

The locals are protesting and Tokyo residents are visiting for the possibly last chance to see Mount Fuji from one of these once plentiful slopes.

Getting a spot where you could see the sun disappearing on the top of Mount Fuji was basically impossible - people had been waiting for hours to get the best spot at the top of the slope.

The photo above is the lower part of the slope where you could barely see the top of  the mountain. Between the top of the slope and here the crowd density was worse that Yamanote line during rush hour.

Here you see what it was all about - a few minutes after the sun had decented behind Fuji’s summit.

of an izakaya in the Yurakucho neighborhood.

I don’t really know why. D76 powder seems to be everywhere, but I have not once encountered a bottle of HC110 in the real (Tokyo) world.

Picked a couple of bottles up at my last visit in my home country. Due to the recent bad news out of Kodak I bought an extra bottle. At my current usage rate 1 liter will last me more than a year. This will give me a couple of years to find an alternative developer - should it come to that.

Near Machiya station. January 2012

This is a proof scan from a 6x6 cm black and white negative which I intend to re-scan and print.

It is funny that when I show this type of photographs to my Japanese colleagues at the photo club in my company, they look at me and openly express that they find it strange that I bother with these common motifs.

I do agree that this is a very common scene, and I would not claim the photograph to be anything special, but the subject represents something uniquely Japanese that you will likely see a lot of, if you walk the residential Tokyo neighbourhoods outside the ring defined by the Yamanote Line. I enjoy walking around in these neighbourhoods and observing the unique japanese mixture of order and decay.