#tokyo photo note

Seen:  Kurata Seiji Vintage Prints Exhibition — Part 2: Lads ＆ Gangs

Who:Kurata Seiji  倉田精二

Where:Zen Foto Gallery,  Roppongi, Tokyo (map)

When:January 7 - February 5, 2022 (Open 12-7pm.  Closed Sun. & Mon.)

Zen’s 2022 starts with a great selection of Kurata Seiji’s vintage prints exhibited in the second half of a generous two-part exhibition.

Part 1, “Night, Alleys & People” was up Nov.27-Dec.25

Part 2, “Lads & Gangs” will be up from Jan.7-Feb. 5th. The images here are of a rollicking, spirited age of youthful passions and camaraderie- a time where that human longing for belonging was met not online but in-person, with some wild uniforms and hairstyles in the mix.

The work shown is a selection of prints from the photographer’s archive. There are some 35mm pieces, but the combination of at 6x7 negative and flash- and Kurata’s eye- resulted in pictures with extreme clarity- so clear actually, that they do what good photographs do: ask more questions than they pretend to answer.

Several prints on display share moments, and even subjects, with images in his renowned book Flash Up (1980)- but I would caution against any attempt at discount them as second-string B-side pictures.
One thing about Kurata’s 70’s is that they always leave the viewer wanting more- and here Zen Foto, as always, delivers.

Another thing about Kurata’s pictures- no matter how gritty or wild they might get, they’re rooted in a sense of affirmation for the human world one can often find in Japanese photography. Rather than moral qualms, it’s precisely that the world in all it’s contradictions and nuance- the “big” picture, so to speak, is worth photographing.

In 2013 Zen Foto published a new edition of Flash Up- regarding his pictures and life lived through photography Kurata wrote:

“And yet, this world of photography is amazing. Here is the strangeness of the unknown and the surprise of the unforeseen. Even though it lasts only a moment, this brightly shining band that stretches across the sky, it can tell the story of all existence, all affirmed and all accepted.”

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I can’t mention Kurata without suggesting that you read this wonderful piece by Mark Person on his friendship with the photographer.

Seen:Rakuen Nippon楽園日本

Who: Nobuyoshi Araki  荒木経惟

Where:Art Space AM, Harajuku (map)

When:January 11  - March 3, 2022 (Open 1-7pm.  Closed Mondays, Tuesdays)

Titled 楽園日本 (Paradise Japan), Nobuyoshi Araki’s new show at Art Space AM plays on the riff of the Japanese hinomaru flag motif used this time in his latest round of doll/flower photographs.

The use of Japan’s national flag can be fraught with implications in Art- too many to get into detail here- but Araki’s use of the the Japanese flag in his work over the past six decades has never been political- indeed, I don’t think he’s ever had a political thought in his mind.

Purposefully uninterested in such matters then, his use of the flag is subversively comical- and in no way a statement on government or history.
If you don’t chuckle aloud a few times in this show, I don’t know what to say. It’s full of his legendary absurdist humor punctuated with moments of bizarre beauty.

Per usual, the gallery space is a work of art in its own right. For best results, visit once the sun has set.

Seen: Umegaoka Lovers’ Suicide   梅ヶ丘心中

Who: Nobuyoshi Araki  荒木経惟

Where:Art Space AM, Harajuku (map)

When:October 11  - December 12, 2021 (Open 1-7pm.  Closed Mondays, Tuesdays)

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2021 at Art Space AM:

1 January - March: Rakuen楽園

2 April - June:  Haru Kareru  春枯れる (Withering Spring)

3 July - September: July 7th  七月七日

4 October - December: Umegaoka Lovers’ Suicide   梅ヶ丘心中

The scope of Araki’s prolific existence is staggeringly vast- I think it’s too large and too varied and too moving and too messy to fit the tiny, glowing rectangles that we filter the world though with now.  Art Space AM however, a cavernous room tucked away in a nondescript building on a Harajuku backstreet, is a perfect vessel for his output. 

The gallery’s owner & curator, Hisako Motoo, is somehow able to steer this stream of photography along, continually facilitating installations of Araki’s latest work since 2014. Her insight into his pictures- not to mention her masterful edits comprising several hundred of his Polaroids at a time- create such experiences that I always get an inexplicable nervous sensation as I make my way up the stairs to the gallery to see the latest exhibition. Upon entering I’ve always found myself moved, and never disappointed. 

Combined, the four shows listed above cover 67% of all of 2021. They have seperate titles but they’re of a phase in a long, vivid, and improbably profuse life of photography.  At 81, I’m told health and the pandemic mostly keep Araki at home. Raucous Shinjuku nightlife has been replaced by pills and an early bedtime. Gone are any of the sorts of pictures he’s known for- indeed, aside from two commissioned series for magazines, there haven’t been many new photographs of actual humans for some time.  Araki’s physical subjects have stopped down to flowers, figures & dolls, and the sky.  With these objects- and the raw beauty of Polaroid’s latest batches of instant film- he makes work that, on its own terms (his), is compelling in mood. The images are vivid, but are weighted by a strange darkness, a blanket of thanatos is descending-  yet sparks of his cheeky humor abound.