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2009, Jul 16
Blog detritus
  • These photos by Mark King remind me of AMERICA.
  • A couple of weeks ago I went to an interesting exhibition at the NOW IDeA by UTRECHT space. I was impressed by the photos of Seth High, whose website doesn’t at all reflect his hilarious and skillful photography. I hope to write more later about Seth and the extensive crew of photographers—dead, alive, real, not real, whatever—with which he works.
  • Much more than Sokyu-sha, NOW IDeA is filled with zines and small publications from all over the world. I was unimpressed with a small book called Tokyo is Dreaming, which only contains photographs of people asleep, in Tokyo. This project would be equivalent to something like Los Angeles is Eating Tacos or San Francisco is Drinking Tecate. Of course, there are plenty of interesting ways to take pictures of people asleep in Tokyo, eating tacos in Los Angeles, or drinking Tecate in San Francisco, but I don’t think this one hit the mark. It feels like the photographer was content enough to get a sleeping person in the frame, press the button and bounce!
  • I picked upbriefly held the new Olympus PEN at Yodobashi. It feels very good in the hand, and the shutter makes a satisfying sound. It also costs around $1000, so unless you already have a bunch of M-mount lenses (I don’t), it may not be worth the expense. I think the old Pen F still looks better, it’s more angular and the leather patch on the left is more dramatic.

    nerd

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    Congrats on your new toy!

    Posted by Dan / July 19, 2009 at 9:15 am:

    hahaha!!

    Kore aimai yo. By “picked up the new PEN F at Yodobashi,” I meant to say that I “picked it up for 5 seconds, took this picture and then returned it to the display stand.”

    Baka eigo

    Posted by Nicole / July 21, 2009 at 10:58 am:

    Hah, I thought you meant to say you purchased one, too! I was about to say… baller. Amazon (gasp!) has them for 799.99, according to an e-mail blast I received not 5 mins ago.

    Posted by Shawn Lee / September 19, 2009 at 7:57 pm:

    Hi…just so you’ll know, the TOKYO IS DREAMING book you referenced was a limited edition of still images taken from the documentary film of the same name. It was never intended as a “photography” book per say but rather as a supplemental in the film’s overall promotional packet. How any copies ended up in NOW IDeA is surprising, if not somewhat questionable, since very few were ever made. I don’t doubt that you saw one there, but it is strange considering where the majority of the promo packets were ultimately sent. In any case, you might want to check out Peter Chang’s documentary in which those images were culled from, especially since you’re in Tokyo. The film has little to do with sleeping, or tacos for that matter.

    Posted by Dan / September 20, 2009 at 3:45 am:

    Hi Shawn, thank you for the comment. Are you sure that this a book produced by Peter Chang? From this link it looks like the book was produced by Mitch Cullin as a set of separate photographs:

    http://www.redroom.com/publishedwork/tokyo-is-dreaming-limited-edition-500-2008

    I would like to see a movie about tacos, I miss tacos and Tecates that don’t cost $10.

    Posted by Shawn Lee / September 20, 2009 at 5:32 pm:

    Hi, Dan…

    Cullin was the producer and a cinematographer on the Chang film, so that’s the connection. The Red Room link mentions that they’re part of the film, but I guess since the stills came from footage he shot the credit went to him {I’m just assuming that’s the case).

    TOKYO IS DREAMING trailer:
    http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=39288522

    They’re the same team that did the Hisao Shinagawa documentary a few years back. Maybe some of the leftover promo books were sold in Japan, although they’re pretty darn hard to come by. I’m still surprised you saw one. I’ve been trying to track down a copy for ages now, and ebay hasn’t helped.

    Can you get good tacos in Tokyo? I had some good salsa there once, at honky tonk bar in Yurakucho. Go figure.

    Posted by Dan / September 21, 2009 at 12:33 am:

    I see, thanks for the link. I haven’t been back to NOW IDeA since then, but I’ve been meaning to check it out. If I see the book there again do you want me to pick it up for you? I think it might have been around 2500yen.

    The documentary looks interesting, although the subject is difficult-it can be hard to represent Tokyo without slipping into cliches, especially if we’re talking about urban loneliness. That was why the book didn’t strike me well, as a collection of images of people asleep on trains I found it weak. (Whereas I like this image of Kayo Ume) I did enjoy the last few seconds of the trailer, where we see moving portraits of people waiting for train doors to close.

    Tacos, basically never. I’m just waiting until I head back to California!

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