YouTube has become a well known website where we can easily access videos from around the globe. Among that, we will be introducing photography related videos one by one. 

The first video introducing today is a documentary on Diane Arbus.

Diane Arbus was an American photographer who was  born in 1923. She took photos like this:

I’m sure many of you have seen this photo of the twins.

A man in drag. It doesn’t surprise us nowadays, but when it was released in the late 1960′s, it caused a great deal of controversy.

Arbus is famous for taking portraits of minorities.  More of her photos can be seen here.  

Let’s take a look at the video in part 2.

all images © The Estate of Diane Arbus

7:30pm

8:00pm

20:30pm

9:00pm

The venue was packed with hip young people - impossible to look at the portraits in details.

The exhibition will be on for about a month. If you have a chance to go to Naka-Meguro, please stop by.
http://impossible-tokyo.tumblr.com/post/7480432673/about-a-girl

Introducing today is a book called “絵葉書が語る関東大震災 – Ehagaki ga Kataru Kanto Daishinsai (Seeing The Great Kanto Earthquake Through Postcards) published by Tsugeshobo in 1990.

After the Great Kanto Earthquake on the 1st of September, 1923, a lot of postcards using the photos of the devastation emerged despite the severe damage at printing offices. The postcards were sold in the city, some for charity and some for moneymaking taking the advantage of the disaster. Without any visual mass media back then, they also became the means to convey the desolation in Kanto areas to the rest of Japan*1.

The black and white prints were coloured manually and then colour printed. You can tell some have been exaggerated with excess smoke and flame.

Location Unknown – Fire smoke in the dark

Nijubashi Bridge

（Above) Kyobashi-Ku:  The massive cracks in Tsukiji

（Below） Kojimachi-Ku:  Hibiya Concert Hall before and after the quake

（Above） Location Unknown: Big cloud and smoke

（Below） Kyobashi-Ku: Kyobashi area surrounded by ferocious fire

（Above） Kojimachi-Ku: Fierce blaze around the Imperial Hotel

（Below） Kojimachi-Ku: The Metropolitan Police Department in fire and the building pre-quake

（Above） Kojimachi-Ku: Sukiyabashi area in flames

（Below） Nihonbashi-Ku: Nihonbashi area before and after the quake

（Above） Kyobashi-Ku: Ginza before and after the quake

（Below） Kyobashi-Ku: Yamashita Bashi Bridge area before and after the quake

（Above） Honjo-Ku: Ryogoku Kokugikan before and after the quake

（Below） Honjo-Ku: Azumabashi Bridge before and after the quake

（Above） Asakusa-Ku: Nakamise Dori, the Senso-ji temple precinct’s shopping street, before and after the quake. The fire is spread fast on the street.

（Below） Asakusa-Ku: The upper 6 floors of the 12-story building collapsed and the area turned into a sea of fire.

（Above） Asakusa-Ku: Asakusa Park before and after the quake and the elephant evacuation.

（Below） Crowd evacuating in confusion.

（Above） Kojimachi-Ku: Crowd evacuating to Marunouchi. Furious fire towards Nihonbashi and Kanda.

（Below） Evacuees around Tabata

*1 Reference  Kanagawa University Website - The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake: Photo/Map Database

The 9th gallery is epSITE.

When printed using ink-jet printer, the paper will roll up. To my surprise, the printed photos were displayed as are.
The ink-jet object.

You will see the photos on the wall as well.

Soothing photos of the snow.

There were prints coming out of the printer.

The printer object.

During the exhibition, on the 14th May, Homma’s open workshop was held here. Everyone seemed to be enjoying this.

This is it for “Satellite 9″.  What the prize would be for the stamp rally?

Take a look at the reports on Asashi Event Plus and Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun if you get the chance (only in Japanese).

The exhibition closes on Sunday the 28th August.

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At “French Window”, Closky has installed a round table arranging numerous photos from around the globe on top of it. The audience can actually touch the photos and when flipped over, another image appears. This installation makes you reassess the relationship in between the exhibition and the audience. I asked the artist two questions.

*Why did you make an installation that people can touch?

With “A Flat World”, I reverse the authority relation between architecture and individual, by flattening the construction on the plan of the photograph, by replacing strong and/or rich materials into common paper and common xerox quality black and white print, by putting the stadiums, towers, monuments, etc in the hands of the public. To do so, I also bring down the art work we look up to on the vertical plan of the wall or the plinth on the low horizontal plan of the table, where it can be manipulated, transformed.

*I understand that that you’ve had a strong interest in photography. This time what was the purpose to include photographs in your works?

The question of meaning and means of representation are central to my work. Here I propose a representation of the world and marks made on its surface by man and woman not directly, but through other representations, satellite photos I haven’t made. But my work remains the same, it is about looking, choosing, framing, showing… The satellite is just like using the appropriate lens to photograph a specific object. I like also to explore the whole planet without moving from my studio, it’s an other experience of freedom (than traveling).

Misrach shot the devastated areas in Southern US, where Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, using his 4-mega-pixel pocket camera in between October and December the same year. 

Destroy this memory

Michael where ARE YOU?9858751247

I’ll miss you

SOB THAT LOOTED ME I WILL KILL YOU!

Family Home $200k Classic Jaguar $5k Insurance won’t Pay-WORTHLESS

LiSA+DONNiE R OK

We Will Rebuild 

WICKED WITCH 

Please remove your car from boat without crushing it! BOAT OWNER

RESCUED

Looters Will BE SHOT

Sorry

HELP! HELP!

KATRINA is A BITCH

WHAT NOW?

ELVIS HAS LEFT THE HOUSE

All images by Richard Misrach, and courtesy of Aperture.

Introducing today is ”Kobe 1995 After the Earthquake” by Ryuji Miyamoto, which focuses on Kobe after the earthquake.

Sogo Department Store – Sannomiya, Chuo-ku, Kobe

Mitsui Trust and Banking Building – Sannomiya, Chuo-ku, Kobe

Wakihama-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe

Meiji Life Insurance Building, Sannomiya, Chuo-ku, Kobe

Sannomiya, Chuo-ku, Kobe

Nagata-ku, Kobe

Nada-ku, Kobe

Sannomiya, Chuo-ku, Kobe

Nagata-ku, Kobe

(C)Ryuji Miyamoto1995/Courtesy of TARO NASU

The 8th gallery is THE CARACKER / GARAGEin Shoto, Shibuya.

Good news first, the exhibition has been extended by three weeks and now they will be open on Sunday the 5th and 12th of June (Closed on Thursdays and Fridays) as well.

Now, let’s take a look at the exhibition (if you haven’t seen the exhibition yet and are planning to go, you might not want to read on).

The entrance is on the 2nd floor of the building which is located in the residential area .

Once in the shop, put your bag in the locker and then to downstairs. Nice jeans at the back.

Found one just beside the stairs. This is one of the series that Homma took in the suburbs of Iceland. The title “Hyper Ballad” reminds me of bjork*1. I wonder if it is related to her who is from Iceland? Let me find out.

Homma tends to use acrylic frames, but the wooden frame does fit well too.

On the first floor. The tote bags can be purchased.

These were probably not taken by Homma.

On the main wall is a fine piece which includes 6 photos. As mentioned above, the wooden frame goes really well with them. It’s almost like wearing a nice jacket with jeans.

There are Polaroid photos in the tiny room where you can get the stamp for your stamp rally.

Didnt’ realise it was there when I first entered the shop, but there is another photo of red building in a red and yellow antique frame. It’s like matching the colour of your socks and shirt?

They play ”beef” as background music. You can listen to it here.

The next and last stop, epSITE.

*1 The song is in bjork’s second album “POST” which was released in 1995.

The 7th gallery is limart (the exhibition ended on the 15th May).

limart handles art related classic books, furniture and interior items.  Inside the shop, you will find Homma’s photos all over the place.

They are so well blended in to the place so that you would hardly notice that they are there.

Nice display.

The title is between the books [mushroom...].

In between the books.

The dandelion art is appealing.

The photobooks at the front would catch your attention, but Homma’s photos are here as well.

There was even a mushroom toy vending machine. Just for your information, they were not made by Homma.

The next stop, THE CRACKER / GARAGE in Shibuya.

Introducing today is “Still Crazy” by Taishi Hirokawa.

It is a collection of photos which were taken in between 1991 and 1994. A 8×10 large format camera was used to take these then 53 nuclear power reactors in Japan.

The Mihama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui, 19 August 1993.

The Second Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, 24 October 1991.

The Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Shizuoka, 23 October 1991.

The Mihama Nuclear Power Plant from different angle, 23 September 1991.

The Monju Fast-Breeder Reactor in Fukui, 19 August 1993 Monju – this plant was still under construction back then.

Hirokawa’s photos produce neither positive nor negative emotions. Rather, the simplicity of the scenery around nuclear power plants raises the issue to the viewers.

Other pieces of Hirokawa can be found here at his official website.