Category Archives: Cover Photo

Japan Exposures photo showcase

Cover Photo

Michio Yamauchi — from “Tokyo 2009.12”

Image 2 Comments

Michio Yamauchi was born in 1950 in Nishimikawa, Aichi Prefecture. After graduating from Waseda University, he attended Tokyo College of Photography. He has been exhibiting his works in independent galleries since 1980. A winner in 1997 of Nikon’s Ina Nobuo Award, Yamauchi has in the last 20 years published over 10 books of his work.

The above photo comes from Yamauchi’s new exhibition entitled “Tokyo 2009.12” which begins this Friday May 14 at Tokyo’s Third District Gallery (running until May 25). Approximately 50 works will be on view. On May 22 at 7p.m. at the gallery, Yamauchi will have a “teach-in” with photographer Seiji Kurata (Flash Up, 80’s Family: Street Photo Random Japan). If you’re interested in attending (Â¥1,000, one drink included), space is limited to 30 people (send an email to the gallery at info@3rddg.com).

Cover Photo

Hideo Takiura — From Tokyo Bodies

Image 1 Comment

Hideo Takiura was born in 1963 in Tokyo, and graduated from Tokyo Agricultural University in 1986. After working as a landscape designer for a few years, he began pursuing a career in photography. His photo book Tokyo Bodies, from which the above photo is taken, collects work shot by Takiura on the streets of Tokyo from 2000-2007 with his trusty 6x6cm medium format camera. A limited number of signed copies are available in the Japan Exposures bookstore.

Please also see a gallery of Takiura’s Tokyo Bodies series.

Cover Photo

Toshio Enomoto from the series Sakura

Image 1 Comment

The cherry blossom season is just over in Japan and all that can now be seen is petals on paths and waterways, which creates a more contemplative atmosphere than the euphoric blossoming. This Cover Photo by Toshio Enomoto, taken from the series Sakura, shows such a scene.

Upon arranging for this photograph, Enomoto-san wrote to us from Amsterdam, where he attended the opening of his first solo exhibition outside of Japan. He also informed us that the series Sakura had been purchased by Huis Marseille Foundation of Photography in the Netherlands. Congratulations!

Please also see our previous feature on Enomoto and the series Arlequin.

Cover Photo

Kazuhito Shibue – from The 18th District of Paris

Image Leave a comment

Kazuhito Shibue was born in 1960 in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture and grew up in Kurashiki (Hiroshima). He worked as a magazine editor, followed by a photo studio until eventually becoming a professional photographer himself.

In his introduction Thick Clouds, Curl Up and Sleep to the current show at Gallery E&M (until 18 Apr 2010) he writes:

In 1993, when the bubble economy in Japan was about to burst, I could not figure out the relation between my professionally taken photos and my personal photos and decided to leave Japan.
There was no specific reason for this choice, but I went to Paris and ended up in the 18th Arrondissement where the cost of living is not very high. It is an area where many immigrants live and rather chaotic, reminiscent of cities in Asia.
I did not take any photos but just walked around Paris for 10-20 kilometers a day. During the second year I walked towards the outskirts of town, returning at night. At that time there were still old cars driving, and sometimes a tire would come off a passing car and to avoid it I had to jump on a narrow path filled with dog turds. I saw many old buildings being demolished at the same time. This was the flow of time in front of me. Some things have gone, others disappear and what remains?
Paris and my photography dilemma existed side by side, irrelevant to each other.

Cover Photo

Osamu Shiihara — “Three Dimensions” (1938)

Image Leave a comment

Osamu Shiihara was born in Osaka in 1905, and graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now named the Tokyo University of the Arts, or known popularly as “Geidai”) in 1932 after studying in the Western painting department. While trying to establish himself as a painter in Hyogo Prefecture, he took up photography and became a leading member of the Tampei Photography Club along with Nakaji Yasui and others. The group was known for producing avant-garde work through a variety of techniques. Shiihara himself used solarization techniques, as well as his own unique combination of photography and painting. Shiihara’s works are in the permanent collections of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Nagoya City Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others.

You can see more examples of Shiihara’s work here.

Cover Photo

Yasumasa Morimura — A Requiem: Vladimir at Night

Image 1 Comment

Yasumasa Morimura was born in Osaka in 1951, and received his B.A. in 1978 from the Kyoto City University of Art. Since the mid-80s he has pursued his own unique brand of “appropriation” with his simulations of other artists’ paintings where he inserts himself into the work, done with extreme care — and a lot of make-up — to ensure the results have a high level of fidelity. Particularly compelling — and it has to be said, hilarious — are those works of self-portraiture where Morimura becomes the artist “depicted”, from Van Gogh to the more recent Frida Kahlo. He is also well known for his series of Hollywood starlets where he becomes Greta Garbo, Brigitte Bardot, and Marilyn Monroe, among many others.

The above work comes from his latest exhibition, Requiem for Something – Art at the Summit of the Battlefield, which is currently on view at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography until May 19. From Lenin to Picasso to Einstein, Morimura’s “self” portraits pay homage to many famous male figures of the 20th century.

Cover Photo

Masahito Agake

Image Leave a comment

Masahito Agake was born in Tokyo in 1969, and works professionally as an architect. In the early 90s Agake began shooting casually while scuba diving, and after coming across the work of Aleksandr Rodchenko and W. Eugene Smith in 1996, he took up photography more seriously. He had his first exhibition at Tokyo’s Place M gallery in 2003, and since then has exhibited his work in different galleries in Tokyo. Most recently he has been exhibiting his work at Third District Gallery in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Please also see a gallery of Agake’s recent work shot in Tokyo and Taiwan.