I went to go check out the “Sentimental Journey” exhibit at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography that’s ending tomorrow. I had walked through once before but it needed another visit, especially with a free ticket burning a hole in my pocket. The show has small selections from 10 photographers’ trips, all within Japan. This time I really enjoyed the photos from Tsuchida Hiromi’s “Zokushin,” where he went into mountain villages and took pictures in and around religious festivals:
Hiromi Tsuchida, Woman with fake flowers, Aoshima, Miyazaki, 1973. from
Lensculture
After walking through, I made a trip up to the fourth floor to visit the museum’s library. I don’t have any pictures to show because they run a pretty tight ship, but I can assure you it’s worth stopping by.
First of all, it’s FREE, and you don’t even have to buy a ticket to the museum to drop in. Although you can’t wander through the main stacks, there’s a simple computer catalog (with English) to look for books which the staff will bring out to you in a minute or two. I think they’ll have basically anything you can think of, especially when it comes to Japanese photographers. I ended up checking out a volume of August Sander’s portraits—a really nice book printed in Germany—and Araki’s “Sentimental Journey.”
There are some materials sitting out for browsing, like history books, books relating to the current exhibitions (Tsuchida’s “Zokushin”) and plenty of magazines, including English-language ones like Foam and Aperture. There are a good numbers of tables, chairs and desks. Next time I’m coming back with a list. Obviously this place comes highly recommended—a free way to spend some enjoyable hours in Tokyo? Unheard of!
Ricoh’s “Ring Cube” occupies two floors of a building in Ginza [link to map], which happens to be the place to go in Tokyo if you’re looking for old-school camera shops. That’s not really my thing but here’s a page with relevant information if you’re interested. All of the major Japanese camera manufacturers have a branded “gallery” or “salon” or… “ring cube” in Tokyo, as a place to show photographs and also show off their latest wares. The top floor of Ring Cube is a small museum which displays every camera Ricoh has ever manufactured.
Anticipation
Ricoh made a lot of TLR cameras
The amazingly small Ricoh Auto Half series. I forgot to take a picture of the great ads for these cameras which are displayed just to the side
One of many 110 format cameras, but this one stood out to me
I am pretty sure this camera was in the house growing up, although I also think I was not allowed to use it
A sacred place. WALL OF GR SERIES CAMERAS
A blue GRD?
Sokyu-sha is one of the many galleries which are around Shinjuku Gyoen, a nicely manicured park in the middle of Shinjuku. To the side of the gallery space is one of the most interesting photography bookstores in Tokyo. It’s not the biggest, but it has a really strong selection of black and white books, including many publications which I haven’t seen anywhere else. Let’s take a look.
I have updated all of these “trip” posts with a link to a map of the place. Here’s the map of Sokyu-sha.
In the middle is a long table, which is mostly full of high-level, more recent books. Older stuff is on the shelves
Requisite issues of Moriyama’s “Record” series. Still managed to pass up the Osaka one, which is on the right here
A bookcase full of what I assume is photography history and criticism. I can speak a reasonable amount of Japanese but kanji is still beyond me
Here’s where Sokyu-sha really shines. These are issues of a small photography publication which I’ve never seen before
I bought the issues of “LP” for 500yen each, and the white book on the left. This book is amazing and only cost 1000yen, I will write about it later
Not exactly zines, but tiny publications printed on cheap paper which are mostly text. Still interesting, and again, I don’t know yet where else to find this kind of thing
Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku is split up into a bunch of different sub-stores, i.e. camera/darkroom stuff, phone/fax, audio/video/mobile. Here are pictures from the film store.
Update: link to a map of Yodobashi Camera
this is the spot for the cheap film, Centuria (in blue) is a good deal
all Portra all the time
Kodak Ilford and other random brands
digital print stations, these are common in train stations too
FUJI
FUJI
FUJI
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
I was serious! As a living deity of photography, Moriyama is all over the place in Tokyo. (So is Araki, but that’s a different post.) Here are some pictures I took at LOGOS Books in Shibuya, where there’s a month long feature on Moriyama, I think for no reason in particular though I can’t be totally sure.
(But mostly Moriyama)
Bold t-shirts
$50 each
The back of the shirts
I did a bad job of taking a picture of most of the books, which are sitting on this shelf. But down here are issues of “Record,” Moriyama’s own periodical photo mag, which is printed beautifully. (It sells for a little over $20.)
The cover of Record no. 10, and a reminder of why I can’t be seriously cynical about Moriyama’s vast exposure.
I know there are only so many times that I’m going to be able to pass up Record no. 11, which was shot in Moriyama’s old stomping grounds of Osaka, in summertime—and probably in a weekend, if not one day. There’s a lot of photos from in and around Shinsekai, and that flavor really comes through the page.
There you have it, even in the midst of this frankly absurd amount of paraphernalia—and this is not the only time I’ve seen this much Moriyama junk in one place—I still can’t deny Daido his talent. It’s a bit maddening actually.
