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2014, Jul 15
“Transmission” (Naoya Hatakeyama + Shuji Akagi) at Studio 35 Minutes

Studio 35 Minutes is re-launching with a bar space next to the gallery. Kota asked me to put together an exhibition that would coincide with the opening of the bar, and also serve as a kind of valedictory show. This is the result; I’m really excited for it.

Transmission
Studio 35 Minutes, Araiyakushimae, Tokyo
Curated by Dan Abbe
7/24 – 7/26, 7/31 – 8/2
5pm – 11pm (Saturdays: 12 noon – 11pm)
Nakano-ku Kamitakada 5-47-8
Talk show (in English, Dan Abbe and Taro Nettleton): 7/25, 8pm

It seems to me that many of the photographs taken after 3/11 have shown little awareness that they will be received by an audience. Naoya Hatakeyama and Shuji Akagi, though, are both conscious of the presence (or possibility) of an audience that will view their images. Hatakeyama has already established himself as one of Japan’s most sophisticated photographers, while Akagi is starting to attract attention for his simple, perhaps even amateur documentation of Fukushima. These two are, in other words, almost completely opposed in terms of their photographic technique, even as they share a certain mentality towards the transmission of their images. I think that showing these photographs in the unpretentious, barebones space of Studio 35 Minutes will allow the viewer to experience the qualities of such transmission.

Transmission
スタジオ35分、新井薬師前、東京
企画:ダン・アビー
7月24日~7月26日、7月31日~8月2日
17時~23時(土曜日は12時から)
東京都中野区上高田5-47-8
ダン・アビーとタロー・ネトルトンのトーク(英語):7月25日、20時

3.11に関連した多くの写真作品は、作家にとっての写真であって、観る者に何かを投げかけるものは少ないと思う。それに対して、畠山直哉と赤城修司は観る者の存在を意識している作家である。畠山は芸術写真において洗練されている写真家の一人であり、一方赤城はシンプル且つアマチュア的ともいえる福島の記録写真を継続的にインターネット等で発表し、近年注目されている。この二人の写真技法はまったく異なるが、”写真を通して伝達する”という両者のメンタリティーは、ある部分では共通していると思う。粗雑で一見なんの飾り気もないスタジオ35分の壁に彼らの作品を置くことによって、作品自体の持つ『伝達』という部分をより感じられればと思い、今回の展示を企画した。

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2014, Jul 15
Tokyo shows

© Wataru Yamamoto

Now is a good time to see exhibits in Tokyo. Why now, in July, when each day is more unbearable than the last?

I was really impressed by Kunié Sugiura’s show at Taka Ishii Gallery 1, “You are always on my mind / you are always in my heart; photo-painting and photo collage, 1976-1981.” Almost 40 years ago, Sugiura was doing things that younger photographers are just figuring out now. Sugiura is a long-term resident of New York, and she says that this work was not received well at all there when she made it. Better late than never? I’m going to see this one again. Until 7/26.

Kazuo Kitai has a show at Zen Foto Gallery 2, “One Road,” which is worth a look. Also until 7/26.

Wataru Yamamoto is opening up a new solo show, “Spring,” at Yumiko Chiba Associates 3, from 7/25 – 8/23.

Keizo Kitajima also has the latest installment of his “UNTITLED PHOTOGRAPHS” 4 series up at photographers’ gallery, until 8/10.


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2014, Jul 04
Motoyuki Daifu at Little Big Man Gallery, LA

© Motoyuki Daifu

Motoyuki Daifu 1 will hold an exhibit of his work “My family is a Pubis, so I cover it in Pretty Panties” at the new Little Big Man Gallery 2 in Los Angeles. It runs from 7/19 – 8/31, so I think I’ll just catch the end of it.


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2014, Jun 30
Tokyo at the Getty

© Mikiko Hara

The Getty will be showing “In Focus: Tokyo,” from August 5 to December 14, 2014 1. This exhibit collects the work of Shigeichi Nagano, Mikiko Hara, Masato Seto and Daido Moriyama. I think there will be a lecture event of some sort in October, but I don’t have the details yet. I will look forward to seeing the work of Nagano and Hara in particular.


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2014, Jun 25
Two perspectives on Tokyo’s 1945 Air Raid

Last month I spent a week in Berlin, and I was struck by the frequency with which the city reminds you of its history. It seemed impossible to walk more than 200 meters without finding a plaque or memorial commemorating something about Berlin’s past. Of course it wasn’t just the city itself: Berliners (the ones I met, at least) were also conscious of this history, and in particular the history of World War II bombings. When I told people the name of the street where I was staying, I often heard something like: “Ah, Alexandrinenstrasse… There’s not so much there, huh? It was completely bombed out in the war, you know.” Naturally, this experience gave me pause to think about how my home city—home for a few more weeks, at least—more or less ignores its own history. Tokyo, after all, was also razed during the war, yet apart from a small memorial 1 there is hardly any visible trace of this fact today.

Of course, Tokyo is now so densely packed that plunking down a memorial in a central location would probably be quite difficult, and (to my limited knowledge) there are no longer any patches of undeveloped land as a result of WWII bombings. Still, I can’t help but think that the city’s own lack of awareness about its past extends to its residents: my own experience really must be taken with a grain of salt, but I have never had any sort of conversation about Tokyo during the war, or in particular the firebombings of March 10, 1945. (I am told that certain groups gather to remember this day.) In any case, when I came back to Tokyo, I was curious to learn more about this significant event which seems to have been put out of sight, out of mind.

I was glad, then, to receive an email from my friend David Fedman with a link to his latest research paper, written together with Cary Karacas, “The Optics of Urban Ruination: Toward an Archaeological Approach to the Photography of the Japan Air Raids.” 2 This paper seems to me extremely well-researched and, quite happily—despite its cumbersome title—highly legible to a non-academic audience. The information that Fedman and Karacas have unearthed, which ranges from the development of aerial photography to the specific methods the United States military used to analyze photographs of Japanese cities, is highly suggestive. Free of any clumsy theorization—an academic specialty, of course, check back with me in a couple of years—the presentation of this material shows very clearly how photography can be integrated into military strategy.

Yet this research does not focus only on the aerial, i.e. American perspective; it also analyzes the photographs of Koyo Ishikawa, a photographer in the employ of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police who is perhaps the only person to have photographed the immediate aftermath of the March 10 bombings on the ground. It sounds like Ishikawa has only been given the most cursory of treatments by historians up until this point, and his photographs have been un- or mis-credited even when they were published. (I was happy to read about the history of Ishikawa’s reception, not just by civilian audiences but indeed by the American military itself.) Fedman and Karacas are successful at showing why this, ah, Street Level perspective is necessary for understanding such an event.

The paper’s weakest point is probably its analysis of the reception of Ishikawa’s unflinching photos at a personal (or phenomenological) level, in other words the effect that looking at such images creates in the viewer. Still, this is a work of history, not art theory, and to investigate such a question thoroughly would be a different kind of work altogether. On the whole, I think this paper will give readers interested in photography—not just Japanese photography—a lot to think about. It’s also worth mentioning that Karacas runs a site, japanairraids.org 3, that offers further information and links to other talks and papers on this subject.

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokoamicho_Park: Which I’d never heard of until I started searching

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2014, Jun 23
Hiroshi Takizawa, “figure”

I am looking forward to seeing Hiroshi Takizawa’s 1 solo exhibit “figure,” which opens this weekend at JIKKA 2, a gallery in Suehirocho. The show will run from 6/27 – 7/12.

Update 7/4: This show is excellent.


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2014, Jun 20
End of PH

With other changes afoot, PH 1 (the online bookstore Andrew and I have been running for the past couple of years) will come to a close around the end of the month. We’re running a small sale; more information is up on Twitter 2. I would highly recommend the following books, based on their quality and their difficulty to acquire outside of Japan.


Shingo Kakita, Saddles 3 (¥1000, roughly $10 at today’s exchange rate)

I am a firm believer in Kakita’s abilities, and I would not be surprised if this goofy zine gets a proper book treatment down the road.

Ryudai Takano, Kasubaba 4 (¥6000)

I think I’ve gone on about Kasubaba a few times before, but I have no shame in saying once more that this book is a deliciously subversive take on the street snapshot, in which Takano pushes the genre to reach an uncomfortable apex of ugliness and banality. Kasubaba is love letter, of sorts, to Japan’s most soul-sucking spots.

Daisuke Yokota, Kazuo Yoshida, Masaru Eguchi, Ryo Fujimoto, MP1 Artist’s Book: Expanded Retina 5 (¥1500)

I’m not going to try to tell you that this book will become the Provoke of its generation, because that probably won’t happen. Still, MP1 is pretty much the only proper group to emerge from Japan’s current crop of young photographers, and that fact in itself—as well as English translations for every text here—makes this publication worthwhile.

Once the store is shut down, I think it will stay up as a way for people to at least have a glimpse of these books. In the time since we’ve opened, Shashasha 6 has emerged as another good option for buying Japanese books, and the original in the field, Japan Exposures 7, is still going strong. It also seems like foreign stores (online or otherwise) are carrying a broader range of Japanese books. Still, I’d like to think that PH offered a different take on the Japanese scene, and more than anything I hope that we were able to stimulate some people in other parts of the world. As with anything, I imagine we probably won’t find that out for years, if ever. In any case, thanks for all your support.


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2014, May 05
Image And Matter In Japanese Photography From The 1970s

If you are in New York, I highly recommend seeing the exhibit “Image And Matter In Japanese Photography From The 1970s,” curated by Yumiko Chiba, at Marianne Boesky Gallery 1 from May 8 to June 14. The show will feature works by Norio Imai, Masafumi Maita, Jiro Takamatsu, Keiji Uematsu, Kanji Wakae and Katsuro Yoshida. It should be an excellent opportunity to see 70s conceptual photography from Japan. Not to be missed!