Street Level Japan

I’ve found myself praising Araki for bringing his own life as close to photography as possible. I don’t think Araki’s photos break too much ground aesthetically, but there’s so much of his life in his photos—maybe even his entire life! Photography is like breathing for him. Just look at how much he’s enjoying himself here:



Araki’s musical equivalent might be Jonathan Richman, who’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, but who expresses himself clearly and naturally when he’s performing. He and Araki both got started around the same time, and are still going strong today.

Here is the full text of a Craigslist job ad posted the other day. The italics are mine:

Adult video actresses needed (Tokyo)

Amature or professional female models/actresses are needed in Tokyo area for contract film work. Foreigners or Japanese are both welcome.

Our production company prides itself on standing out from an existing, saturated market here in Tokyo.

We are influenced highly by the works of Nobuyoshi Araki.

Requirements:

- Be over the legal age of 18.

- A simple resume , (importantly) photo and valid ID are needed. (ID only at initial meeting, resume or photo can be emailed)

- Motivation and interest to be involved in this sort of work.

- Last but not least, there are no requirements apart from wanting to have fun whilst getting paid.
We hope that there is a potential for a long working relationship between both parties involved.

the blog world is still so new! the current stars are skilled at putting on a grand show, like chaplin. who knows, maybe even the more thoughtful ones (keaton, in my image) won’t survive the next wave…

i used a darkroom today. i like black and white film because i think it’s EASY. today i made four contact sheets and four prints. none of the prints are ready to be exhibited, 3 are not centered properly on the paper, but in all of last YEAR, even with my scanner, i made probably no more than 15 prints, which was the whole idea of getting it in the first place. scanning is such pain, everything is guesswork! “how’s the calibration of my monitor, how’s the calibration of the lab’s printer, if i move this curve 5 pixels down does the photo actually look better, and WHY IS IT THAT walgreens almost makes my color film look better anyway…” not to mention the soul-crushing tedium of scanning. the darkroom is simple and rewarding.

FEEL ME FLOW

i also saw araki’s latest show today. it’s called Araki 69, he’s turning 69 years old and he shot it with a 6×9 camera. i would say the photos are like “Araki photos made with a 6×9 camera,” in other words he translated his style accurately to the format. here’s an interesting interview with Araki, it makes me feel a bit ashamed for having so little to say about him WHEN HE’S PUBLISHED 450 BOOKS, if that’s even true. “Kofuku Shashin” sounds interesting, though.

From The Park

You’ve probably seen images from Kohei Yoshiyuki’s The Park series before. Here’s a link to an interview done by Nobuyoshi Araki, published in 1979. The interview is pretty good but I want to draw attention to the way Araki leads it off:

As the genius of photography, I’d like to introduce Yoshiyuki Kohei to our readers.

Modest as ever!

Side note: I walked through Chuo Park, where Yoshiyuki took most of these pictures, the other day. It was a good spot for taking pictures, there were a few stray cats that didn’t mind company, and some people wandering through.