Corner

Well, it's coming up to my two-year blip anniversary of a photo a day. This time last year I wrote a series of posts on the theme of photographers that inspire me-my favorite photographers that I return to over and over when I need a bit of inspiration-and this year I thought I'd do something similar.

This time around I've got together the photography-related books that I've picked up over the year and I'll be writing a little bit about each one. Some I've written about already in my blips, others I haven't, but the idea is give you an idea of where my photography comes from and what kind of photographs I like to look at when I'm not out wandering around Tokyo.

Feel free to disagree with any or all of my assessments, or if you've got some suggestions you think I might like stick them below the line.

So, on with the show . . .

Part 1: Toshi-e (Towards the City) by Yutaka Takanashi

I first really came across Yutaka Takanashi by chance when I chanced across some photographs from Toshi-e at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Out the disappointing Jackson Pollock retrospective, up the stairs, past the Japanese paintings, and tucked in one corner was some small prints taking up a corner of the museum. Not much a show really, but some of the photos stuck with me as being both of the past and present Japan.

Of course, being the idiot I am, I walked out of the exhibition, promptly forgot Takanashi's name, and so that was that until months later when I again came across Toshi-e, but this time in a photography book café. My first time at the café I picked up two books to look at: a collection of Magnum photographers' photo's of Japan because the title was in English, and a random Japanese book that looked grim enough to be interesting. The latter was an old copy of a book published for a show called Field Notes of Light that showed a range of Takanashi's work over the years. I ordered Toshi-e the minute I got home.

Originally published in 1974, Toshi-e is now considered a landmark publication from Japanese photography's Provoke era. The book is split into two volumes, Toshi-e and Notes Tokyo-jin, dealing with the place and the people, respectively. Many of the photographs in the first volume carry a feeling of isolation as they show very high contrast, almost abstract landscapes. People, when they are included, add to that feeling of isolation. One of the highlights of this volume is Takanashi's cinematic fade in and fade out of the volume. The second volume focuses on the people in the city, the Tokyo-ites, and here he shows everyday scenes from apartment blocks to train stations to department stores, with some scenes being recognizable to those of use living in Tokyo today. What makes this volume standout is Takanashi's use of a little humor where an antennae sticks out the top of a man's head or a boys face appears at the window of a dolls house.

This is an excellent book if you are looking for something different outside of Daido Moriyama/Nobuyoshi Araki, but want the high contrast, grainy look.

Part 2: Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes