Tag Archives: seigensha

Cover Photo

Shintaro Sato – from Risen in the East series

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Shintaro Sato was born in 1969 in Tokyo, and graduated from Tokyo College of Photography in 1992 and Waseda University School of Letters Arts and Sciences in 1995. After working as a staff cameraman for Kyodo News for 7 years, he left there in 2001 and has been a freelance photographer since. In 2008, Sato’s Tokyo Twilight Zone was published by Seigensha to great acclaim, and the next year Sato received the 2009 Newcomer’s Award from the Photographic Society of Japan. The above photo comes from Sato’s most recent work, centering on the Tokyo Sky Tree broadcasting tower soon to be opened in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward. This work has been collected into the book Risen in the East, published this month, also by Seigensha. If you’re in the Tokyo area, Photo Gallery International will be exhibiting Sato’s new work from January 13 – February 25.

Please also see an extended gallery of photographs from this new series. In this 2009 Japan Exposures interview, Sato talks about his motivations with the Tokyo Sky Tree series.

Light Reading

Paris Photo: November 13 – 16

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This year’s Paris Photo photography fair gets under way tomorrow and you’d have to live under a rock not to know that this year the fair has selected Japan as it’s “foreign scene” of focus.

Indeed, talking with various people this past week, you have to wonder what Japanese photographer is NOT going to Paris. Even those who have no books to sign or photos to show will be going to soak in the limelight of attention as Japan’s rich and vibrant photographic history and current scene are displayed for the denizens of Paris to see (although according to the press information, 40% of the anticipated 40,000 visitors are expected to come from outside France).

Mariko Takeuchi is the guest curator for the Japan spotlight, and you can read her overview of Japanese photography over at Lens Culture.

If you’re not going to Paris but would like to drool along with me and lots of other folks who won’t be going, I recommend taking a look at pages 8 – 22 of the Press Kit .pdf which gives a pretty thorough rundown of anything and everything connected with Japan on display or view. Suda Issei, Ogose, Saitama Prefecture, from the series Fushi Kaden, 1976<br />Vintage silver print<br />22,7 x 22,6 cm<br />© Issei Suda, courtesy Galerie Priska Pasquer, Köln Particularly intriguing are the Project Room which will present a series of contemporary videos by Japanese photographers — such as a DVD copy of a 8mm film shot by Daido Moriyama in Shinjuku in 1973 — and the Central Exhibition which aims to highlight the central role of the photo book to Japanese photography and features five Japanese publishers like Seigensha and Tosei-sha.

Speaking of books, here’s something that will really make photography and photography book lovers drool: a list of scheduled book signings (.pdf) taking place over the four days. Of course Japanese photographers are healthily represented, but signers also include William Klein, Alec Soth, and Stephen Shore.