tokyo camera style

Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Mamiya 7ii with 80mm f4 lens

Photographer: 菊池真未 / Masami Kikuchi  / instagram

Seen at Kikuchi’s exhibition 遠く溢れる / I still can see (surely)

Masami Kikuchi at her exhibition 遠く溢れる / I still can see (surely) at Totem Pole Photo Gallery, September 2020

Seen: 昨日 Yesterday

Who: Mitsuru Sato (previously on TCS)

Where: RED Photo Gallery, Shinjuku

When: August 31 - September 13, 2020 / 12:00-19:00 daily

So many good shows are going on in Tokyo this week…  I’m always glad to see Mitsuru Sato’s latest entries in his ongoing diaristic, quiet “Yesterday” series. He doesn’t have a website but I’ve been sharing installation views of his work for a few years now. 

His lens meanders through the city, often alighting on young women in trains lost in smartphone-glow or men hunched over beers in Shinjuku. While the core of his vision remains, in this newest show the reflection of Tokyo’s total masking appears. The masks that seperate (and protect) people, the vinyl barriers between diners packed in at ramen counters- even the usual sound-barrier cloth put up around construction projects takes on a new feeling.

But if there’s any “message” to these pictures it’s not one that’s scientific nor political or of any urgency. Maybe it’s simply, “this is what it looks like now”.

Seen:  遠く溢れる / I still can see (surely)

Who:  菊池真未 / Masami Kikuchi  / instagram

Where: Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku

When: September 8 - 13, 2020 (12 - 7pm)

This exhibition is a sort of continuation of her previous 2014 show in theme and in some cases, subjects.  The young women in these photos are people whom Kikuchi approached on the streets of Tokyo for portraits- encounters which grew into friendships-and  what’s pictured are collaborative portraits of their relationships.

She shoots with a Mamiya 7 loaded with Provia film- and said tonight that this camera is an asset when approaching people- it’s so obviously out of the ordinary that people are intrigued.  

Masami has also self-published and hand-made a zine of this series- it is available in the gallery (1500 yen) during the exhibition.

This is probably my favorite Totem Pole show of 2020. It’s too bad this is only a six day show! I’ll probably be going back for another look. 

Daido Moriyama: Hokkaido

Rathole Gallery, Tokyo

December 19 -February 8, 2008

Nobuyoshi Araki: POLART 6000

Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo

July 17 - August 20, 2009

- - - - 

Six-thousand polaroids!

Online reports: hypebeast / art-it.asia

Seen: Slightly Faded Trips / すこし色あせた旅

Who: Koji Onaka 尾仲 浩二

Where:  Place M, Shinjuku

When:  August 3 - 16, 2020

With travel currently out of the question, Koji Onaka is exhibiting a selection of snaps taken over the past twenty years on his trips around Japan. Keeping things basic with a #CanonF1 or #NikonF3 and a 35mm lens, his deceptively simple photographs possess a particular purity that gradually reveals fascinating, contemplative details. The C-prints are beautiful- but so is his ability to produce the extraordinary from the mundane. 

His standard exhibition method- a concentrated line of small prints hung at just the right height- keeps the viewing experience intimate and something similar to taking a trip of one’s own.

A selection of Onaka’s many photobooks are available for purchase in the gallery.

Seen: 路上 VII / On The Street 7

Who: 淵上裕太  Yuta Fuchikami / website / instagram

Where: Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku

When: August 4 - 16, 2020   /  12:00 - 7:00pm (closed Mondays)

I always look forward to Fuchikami’s shows- entry/exhibition number 7 in his “On The Street” series focuses on Tokyo’s Ueno Park and the inhabitants that he shares a moment with. Fuchikami’s got that subtle kind of unobtrusive, guileless personality that instantly endears him to strangers. I’ve watched him work- it’s fascinating. He just… does it. Situations- and people- just work out for him. I don’t mean simply his ability to get consent- I’m talking about how the subjects themselves wander into his world and lens.  I can’t quite figure out what this phenomenon is exactly but his pictures suggest it better than any words I try to write. 

Certainly his big, clunky Pentax 67 helps- it’s a camera immediately recognized as an anachronism to the average person and therefore non-threatening.  His approach and methods are simple and consistent- only shooting with a 105mm lens- handheld, no less- with Kodak Tmax 400 for black and white or Kodak Portra or (this show) Fuji Pro 400H for color. A talented darkroom printer, his exhibition is comprised of c-prints- even the “panorama” taped along the lower part of the gallery wall. 

The quality of Fuchikami’s work puts it alongside  the best of Tokyo’s rich culture of street portraiture. I think he’s as good as any of his predecessors or peers and hope that one day a thick, proper photobook of these pictures is published. 

Seen: The March of Saints 聖者の行進

Who: Juri Sato 佐藤 樹里

Where:  Place M, Shinjuku

When:  July 27 - August 2, 2020

Sato’s show revolved around encounters with Yanaka-cats and other small animals in Tokyo. Snapped on walks with her Ricoh GRD, the images were printed often larger than life- their contrast and blur working to alter the experience even more.