A spread from "Rasen Kaigan"

Meaningful photography criticism in Japan is generally practiced at the academic level, which means that the discussion almost never reaches the world of photographers. In the first part of 2013, Minoru Shimizu’s articles on Lieko Shiga ¹ proved an exception to the rule; it seemed like they were on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Certainly, Shimizu was able to reach a more general audience by (very cannily) describing Shiga’s work as “B-class horror.” Any reader who looks beyond this catchphrase, though, will find that Shimizu is not trying to demolish Shiga—he’s harsh, yes, but he offers her Sendai Mediatheque exhibit very high praise. Instead, his anger is reserved for Japanese “critics” who, in Shimizu’s view, write only “idle chatter, revealing nothing about photography itself.” Here we have the real motivation for these articles, but it’s easy to imagine that this particular critique fell on deaf ears.

Of course I’m only writing about these articles now because they have recently been translated into English on the ART-iT site. Here are links to part 1 ² and part 2 ³.