Love is Art

Well, as this is a particularly average photograph you would be right if you suspected there was a reason for it.

On the way back from an appointment involving three companies an five industrial robots I noticed a cafe at Gotemba station.  There were old cameras in the window so I took a nosy inside.

"You country?" is how I was greeted by a man in his late fifties maybe early sixties.
I decided that there was a chance the conversation may progress more smoothly if we spoke Japanese.  We quickly established that I'm not an English teacher, I have heard of the Beatles and also William Shakespeare but that I haven't seen him in a while so I don't know how he's getting on.  And yes my wife is Japanese.  This is a conversation I am very familiar with and slightly tired of after 14 years but I was curious about his cafe so I continued politely.

Turns out he is a famous professional photographer (his words).  I mentioned my photography affliction.  He asked to see my photographs.  I explained blip and showed him a few.  He declared them all to be lacking, some of them just plain wrong.  Hidden in his monologue about his self proclaimed brilliance and my obvious amateurish attempts (I am an amateur after all) were a smattering of statements that I agreed with.

I think I've improved over two years but I'm always jumping from one thing to the next.  Blip is kind of like running without time to think where you are running to sometimes.  My photographs lack continuity and I haven't found a defining style that is mine alone.

But who gives a rats ass, I'm not in a rush and experimentation is important.  It's always good to get criticism anyway.

I thanked him and asked to take his picture.  He refused.  "Professionals don't allow people to take their pictures" and "No pictures inside the shop"

I googled him later to find lots of pictures inside his shop and of him.

One blog post says that he told them he worked with legendary director Kurosawa.

His name is Iketani Shunichi.  If I'm ever in Gotemba again I think I'll try the curry they serve then critique it for him.

Thanks Iketani san, you are pretty full of yourself but I enjoyed our conversation.