Exercise: The Japanese Connection

Brief:

Read Miranda GAvin’s reviews of Anders Petersen’s French Kiss and Jacob Aue Sobol’s I, Tokyo for Hotshoe Magazine. Read Bye, Bye Photography and researc the work of Daido Moriyama. Then write a reflective commenatary about the connections between thestyles of Moriyama, Petersen and Sobol.

(Open College of the Arts, 2014:52)

Are-bure-bokeh

Are, bure, bokeh (Japanese terminology) translates to rough, blurred out, and out of focus and dominated the Provoke magazine era in the 1960s. Provoke magazine was first published in 1968 as a dojin-shi, or self-published magazine. The are-bure-bokeh style images created a great deal of controversy at the time, but the style seems to have perpetuated through the decades as can be seen in the work of Anders Petersen and Jacob Aue Sobol who were inspired by the work of Daido Moriyama.

Anders Petersen – French Kiss

Petersen’s work was heavily influenced by Daido Moriyama, Nan Goldin and Boris Mikhailov and he describes it as ‘personal documentary’ . According to Michael Grieve of 1000 Words, Petersen ‘captures the blur in between [that which is real and that which is not], the slight distortion of sight, and uncanny associations in that non-defined zone by which the surrealists were so fascinated’ (Grieve, s.d.). As one can see in the video above, the work in his book, French Kiss, is punctuated by sexual overtones , innuendos and symbols. The images are full bleed, with no room for captions at all, which allows the viewer to put his/her own spin on the images. Petersen shows the viewer the darker, seedier side of life. Like Moriyama, Petersen also shoots with a small point and shoot compact camera with a 35mm lens.

Jacob Aue Sobol – I, Tokyo

Like Petersen, Sobol also uses full bleed images in his book with no captions. He crops in tightly on his subjects allowing them to fill the page entirely, leaving hardly any room for the viewer to find context. His book also contains images of a sexual nature, some quite bizarre to say the least. One really has to wonder how, as an outsider, he managed to gain access to those intimate moments (or managed to stage them – which ever is the case). Or did those subjects receive payment? I’m not entirely sure that I agree with Gavin’s remark that Sobol’s ‘sensitivity … allow(s) eroticism and danger to seep through his images without becoming sordid or clichd’.

Daido Moriyama – Shashin yo sayonara (Bye bye photography)

Moriyama’s book Bye Bye Photography was made when he was very young. He was one of the founding photographers of Provoke magazine (a very short lived magazine in that it only produced three issues, but was extremely influential in establishing ‘are-bure-bokeh’ style work). The photographs were made during a time when Japan was slowly recovering from the aftermath of the atomic bomb and dealing with the invasion of American culture and its effects on collective Japanese identity. The images are an act of social rebellion on Moriyama’s part. Constantly questioning what photography was and why he was taking photos, he decided to push the boundaries of photography by including photos that had their negatives basically trashed in the bin, or walked over on the floor. The results are images that are gritty, grainy and raw, featuring blown highlights and dense shadows. His work is highly subjective, yet accurately reflects the chaotic everyday life in Japan’s megacities. He has always, and still does, used a compact camera for his photography.

It is obvious that Moriyama has been a forerunner with this type of work. He is a true street photographer, roaming the streets for hours on end (see Tate video listed below). There is a clear link in the way the three photographers approach their work and its visual output. Sobol’s work is less blurry or out of focus that Moriyama’s and Petersen’s work. Personally I find this work quite hard to read and very depressing.

 

Bibliography

Anders Petersen – Frenchkiss (Kehrer Books). (2016) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e2wpYyHTNY (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Anders Petersen on Vimeo (2011) At: https://vimeo.com/34125446 (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Are Bure Bokeh (s.d.) At: https://www.lomography.com/competitions/3214-are-bure-bokeh (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Borrelli, V. (s.d.) Daido Moriyama: Shashin yo sayonara Bye, bye photography, dear / Farewell photography First Edition SIGNED | Daido MORIYAMA, Takuma, NAKAHIRA | 1st Edition. At: https://www.vincentborrelli.com/pages/books/110799/daido-moriyama-takuma-nakahira/daido-moriyama-shashin-yo-sayonara-bye-bye-photography-dear-farewell-photography-first-edition (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Daido Moriyama on social rebellion in 1960s Japan. (2019) Directed by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQEDzei15UU (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Grieve, M. (s.d.) Anders Petersen | 1000 Words. At: http://www.1000wordsmag.com/anders-petersen/ (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Presenting I,Tokyo by Jacob Aue Sobol. (2012) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKdHk6ekRKk (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Smyth, D. (2019) Daido Moriyama wins the 2019 Hasselblad Foundation International Award. At: https://www.bjp-online.com/2019/03/daido-moriyama-wins-2019-hasselblad-award/ (Accessed on 26 September 2019)

Tate (2012) Artist Daido Moriyama – In Pictures | Tate – YouTube. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foWAs3V_lkg (Accessed on 27 September 2019)