File 7: "Stripper Zukan" by Yoshiichi Hara, 1982, reviewed by Natsuko Oda

Since 1975 Yoshiichi Hara has made more than fifteen hundred photographs of strip-tease artists – and Stripper Zukan is regarded as the starting point of this lifelong project.  In 1981 Hara held his first 'stripper' exhibition at the Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery in Tokyo – featuring the photographs of two hundred strippers created after visiting some three hundred Tokyo-area strip clubs.  The next year he published Stripper Zukan, which comprised of only sixty-five portraits from that series, a book inspired by E.J. Bellocq’s Storyville Portraits (Little Brown & Co, 1970, with images championed – and posthumously printed – by Lee Friedlander).

One immediately sees that each of the book’s portraits is from the clubs’ 'greenrooms'. The greenroom functions as a portal between the stripper’s often-mundane life and the bright stage-lights – a place where a woman metamorphoses into a stripper. Despite the photographer’s presence the women of Stripper Zukan appear relaxed, innocent, and defenseless – alone in their greenroom, protected from the outside world, their true selves before becoming fantasy objects.

Stripper Zukan presents a variety of images of women comfortably napping or lazily smoking – often with too much makeup on a stressed face, but posing proudly with a cheerful smile. There are also various body-types, with too small breasts, fat bellies, skinny arms and legs, and peculiar tattoos – in underwear or showy sequined costumes. In the background may be club notices stuck on the walls or an unmade futon. One discovers the strippers’ fatigue, bravado, sadness, and coquetry throughout Hara’s work. You cannot help but wonder how Hara achieved such free and relaxed expressions – and why he chose to show us these greenroom scenes instead of more typical stage shots.

When Hara was eighteen-years old he traveled to an old spa town in northern Japan and found a strip-club there. A middle-aged stripper, with her fat belly, was standing on the stage – at the side of stage a child (possibly her own child) was roaming about. Hara lost any sexual desire associated with this art because this stripper remained him of his mother – and that the child could be himself. This triggered his introspection and empathy that – under different circumstances – she could have been his mother. 

In short, Hara understood that strippers each have individual lives behind the bright lights – and he recognized that behind their attitude and toughness, these women, who used their own bodies to earn a living, had everyday, often ordinary, lives, needs, and dreams.

In 2013 Hara held an exhibition of vintage prints at Gallery Sekka in Tokyo. As he looked back on his early days he said, “Most of the strippers I met in the past were older than me. And now they are growing older, but I’m sure they still strive to maintain a shadow of how they once looked. I also have aged – I’m already sixty-five years old. I want to show you how the photographs I made and those days haven’t changed. They remain portraits of proud strippers who I love very much”.

Hara’s sincere respect for strippers and their lives can be felt in these words. He praises their spirit and intellect as they try to first be authentic women before dancing as (male fantasy) strippers. In addition he admires their courage as they live hard lives while conscious that they are regarded only as sexual objects to their viewers.

With his sympathy for every stripper he met – and for her life behind the stage, Hara persistently focused on the greenrooms, where strippers show their naked faces as real women. By arranging their portraits in a simple 'zukan'-style (illustrated reference book) Hara presents anonymous identities, but elevates these lives, and their special occupation, into the universality of being any women.

(English translation by Masato Fukuda, Michael Lang, Miwa Susuda)

Natsuko Oda: photobook writer, currently based in Hiroshima, Japan, specializes in Japanese photobooks in the 60s-70s, earned the Master of Arts in Photography and certificate of Museum of Art Counsil from Nihon University in 2000.  Master thesis on Diane Arbus.

BOOK INFO:

Title: Stripper Zukan

Artist: Yoshiichi Hara

Designer: Yoshiichi Hara

Publisher: Del-sha (self-published)

Date: 1982

Size: 31×26 cm

Binding/pages: softcover/128pp

ARTIST INFO: 

Yoshiichi Hara

Japanese, b. 1948

Born in Tokyo, Hara grew up near the theater house where his parents used to take him.  Later the theater became his life long fascination for his work.  Hara was first introduced to camera at his early age and he used to take pictures of his cat, family and any surrounding with a camera that his elder brother won as a prize.  In 1971 he entered Chiyoda Design Photography school.  He held his debut exhibition, “Touhoku Zanzou” (Afterglow of the North Eastern Province), at Ginza Cannon Salon Gallery in 1973. During this period he also joined a circus in Miyazaki prefecture and he took many photographs of their performers. In 1974 he became a photographer for a tabloid paper that was the only newspaper featuring strip-clubs in Japan at the time. After leaving this newspaper company, he devoted himself to photographing strippers around Tokyo – and he has taken their portrait photos as his main subject ever since.

When he worked as a photographer for adult magazines, he had taken, on average, photographs of three strippers per week for forty years, which he used to consider to be his duty.

In addition to this photography books, Hara has published many books about the culture and history of the vanishing world of striptease.

Recently he stopped to take any assignment for adult magazines (because of heart illness) and devotes himself only to his own personal projects. Especially his later work was created from his view of life and death and his understanding of life’s uncertainty. Hara continues to pursue the question of “what is life about?” and always goes back to the days when he first took photographs of strippers.  His photography has been recently reviewed favorably in Japan.

Publication:

1978 Fuubaika (Wind-pollinated Flower), Del-sha, self-published

1980 My Gypsy Rose, Yagenbura Sensyo, Bansei-sha

1982 Stripper Zukan (Strippers Illustrated Book), Del-sha, self-published

1984 Shyukujo roku Hara Yoshiichi Collection (Documents of Ladies in Yoshiichi  Hara Collection), Bansei-sha

1988 Mandara Zukan (Illustrated Book of Buddhist Visual Schema of the Enlightened Mind), Bansei-sha

1994 1994 Strippers Meikan (Directory of Strippers 1994), Fuuga-shobou

1995 Kageyama Rina Densetsu (The Legend of Rina Kageyama), Seijin-sha

1999 The City Where Strip Club (Stripp no Aru Machi), Jiyuukokumin-sya　

2000 The Strippers, Futaba-sha

2000 The Strippers 2, Futaba-sha

2001 The Strippers 3, Futaba-sha

2008 Utsutsu no Yami (The Darkness of Reality), Soukyuu-sha

2010 Showa Strip Kikou (Travel-writing About Strip in Showa Era), co-published by Tetsuhiko Sakata & Pot Publisher

2011 Hikari aru uchi ni (While It Is Still Light), Soukyuu-sha

2013 Tokoyo no Mushi (Insects in the Eternal World), Soukyuu-sha

2013 Tenshi Mita Machi (In The City With Angel), PlaceM　

Exhibition:

1973 Touhoku Zanzou（Afterglow of the North Eastern Province) Ginza Cannon Salon Gallery

1980 Stripper Zukan (Strippers Illustrated Book) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

1981 Nobori No Enkei (A Distant View of Flags Flying)group exhibition Sinjuku Nikon Salon Gallery

1983 Shyukujo roku  (Documents of Ladies ) Shinjuku Minolta Space Gallery

1986 Mandara Zukan (Illustrated Book of Buddhist Visual Schema of the Enlightened Mind) Shinjuku Nikon Salon Gallery and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

1987 Mandara Zukan Ⅱ(Illustrated Book of Buddhist Visual Schema of the Enlightened Mind Ⅱ) K Gallery Fukushima 

1993 Eros No Kokuin（Carved Seal of Eros)Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

2002 Utsutsu no Yami (The Darkness of Reality) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery 

2008 Utsutsu no Yami Ⅱ(The Darkness of Reality Ⅱ) Soukyuu-sya Gallery

2009 Maboroshi no Machi(The Lost Illusional Citys) group exhibition Third District Gallery Shinjuku

         Maboroshi no Toki(The Lost Illusional Times) Soukyuu-sya Gallery

　　   Tokoyo no Mushi Ⅰ(Insects in the Eternal World  Ⅰ)Third District Gallery Shinjuku

2010 Hikari aru ichi ni Ⅰ (While It Is Still Light Ⅰ) Third District Gallery Shinjuku

2011 Hikari aru uchi ni Ⅱ (While It Is Still Light Ⅱ) Totodo Gallery Shibuya

        Hikari aru uchi ni Ⅲ (While It Is Still Light Ⅲ) Ban Photo Gallery Nagoya

2012 Hikari aru uchi ni (While It Is Still Light ) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery  and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

         Shashin no kai syou ten (Exhibition of the Prize of “Society of Photography) Place M Gallery Shinjuku

　　 Tokoyo no Mushi Ⅱ (Insects in the Eternal World Ⅱ )Third District Gallery Shinjuku

2013 Participated in Japanese Art Photographers 107 at Tokyo International Forum

　　  Tokoyo no Mushi (Insects in the Eternal World ) Ginza Nikon Salon Gallery  and Osaka Nikon Salon Gallery

　　 Tenshi Mita Machi (In The City With Angel) PlaceM Gallery, Shinjuku

　　 Stripper Zukan(Strippers Illustrated Book) Sekka Gallery, Ueno

File 6: "Bible" by Momo Okabe, 2014, reviewed by Betsy Clifton

If God is dead, he’s surely rolling in his grave. Momo Okabe’s Bible, in both stature and spirit will not fit into your bedside table, although its alluring gold foil stamping and crimson suede cover will persuade you to keep it close. Juxtaposing images of underground Tokyo nightlife and the destruction wrought by the tsunami in Miyagi, and India between 2008 and 2014 Bible is a testament to the unwavering complexity of Momo Okabe’s everyday life with her lovers and friends. Alongside their pursuance of a genuine identity and sense of belonging, Okabe unfolds the “sad, yet beautiful scenery that they could perceive after overcoming the long and difficult struggle out from their traumatic past.” The sincerity and depth of Okabe’s work unwinds a sweetness within the tension of collective alienation; a window into a kaleidoscopic heart.

 Bible is published by Session Press as a part of an ongoing, earnest mission to acquaint Japanese artists to an international audience. This is Okabe’s second US monograph published by Session Press following her unique artist book Dildo, an incredibly labored small edition in 2013. Okabe has been highly acclaimed by Nobuyoshi Araki at New Cosmos of Photography in 1999 and Masafumi Sanai at Epson Color Image in 2009 as well as by many other prestigious competitions in Japan. It is difficult, however, to position Okabe’s work into the norm of contemporary Japanese photography often associated with its perfection in composition and quiet meditation with subjects. Outside of the mainstream photo community, Okabe has pioneered her own electric yet sensitive color pallet to convey her overflowing emotions onto her work. It’s the kind of color that reminds me of what wandering around a desert would look like; the purples your eyes find after you’ve stared at the sun, the reds that hover over hot sand, and the depths of blues and greens that are only remembered through your imagination.

Since I first finished Bible it continued to swim around my head and churn up a poignant realizations of all how so few things are our own that we can really talk about. Take our designated terms — a mother, a father, a family — words that describe what we already know as feeling above all.  The language in Bible — of a boy, a girl — struck this same cord as a visceral dichotomy, headlining what photography handles that words cannot. Okabe has brought a new breed of personification forward to a Japanese subculture long deserving of a platform. Her pulse between landscape and body imagery is not for the faint-of-heart, Okabe’s intimate access to gender identity (both pre and postoperative) is as urgent as it is courageous. Her rhythm continues to kick up the sediment of my mind once settled in the overtly intellectualized practice so prevalent in today’s contemporary photography scene, and begins to reposition critical perspectives towards compassion, intimacy, and camaraderie. Momo Okabe is enlightened over the weight of the history and tradition that stands before her, and keeps dear a why to live that endures almost any how.

Betsy Clifton is a book designer and distribution manager at Dashwood Books in New York, NY. She has contributed to numerous Dashwood publications over the past three years, most recently with artists Jason Polan, Stefan Marx, and Ari Marcopoulos. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and is currently an M.Arch candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.

BOOK INFO:


Title: BIBLE

Artist: Momo Okabe


Design: Momo Okabe

Text: Ko Kosugi

Translation: Daniel Gonzalez

Publisher: Session Press


Date: 2014

Edition: 300, SIGNED, regular edition 
Edition: 20, with an archival color C print SIGNED, NUMBERED by Artist


Size: 9.84 x 14.17 inches


Binding/printing/weight/page: hardcover, off-set color printing, 95 color images in 122 pages, 7 pounds.

ARTIST INFO: 

Momo Okabe

Japanese, b. 1981

Momo Okabe was born in Tokyo in 1981 and received her B.F.A. in photography from Nihon University of Art in 2004.  Her work has been nominated by many prestigious competitions in Japan including:

-Special Award “The 8th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography selected  Nobuyoshi Araki “, P3 art and environment, Tokyo, 1999.

-Fine prize for” the 19th 3.3㎡ Exhibition”, Guardian Garden Tokyo, 2002.

-Excellent Work Prize “Color Imaging Contest of EPSON”, Tokyo International Forum, 2004.

-Fine work prize “The 30th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography ”,  Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2007.

-Special Jury Prize , “Color Imaging Contest of EPSON selected by Masafumi Sanai” EPSON, Tokyo, Japan, 2009.

-Selected for Yokohama Photo Festival Exhibition, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, 2010.

-Selected for Tokyo Portfolio Review Exhibition, NADiff A/P/A/R/T,Tokyo, 2010.

-“DILDO” (session press, 2014) selected for 2013 PHOTOEYE BEST PHOTOBOOK by Hisako Motoo.

Publication:

dildo

Artbeat publsiher, Tokyo, 2010, 100 ltd edition

UNSEEN/TSUMAMI (with Kokey Kanno)

Dashwood Books, NY, 2012, 200 ltd edition

DILDO

Session Press, NY,  2013, 55 ltd edition

Momo Okabe Publisher's Site

File 5 "Nagare no Uta / soul and soul” by Kiyoshi Suzuki, 1972, reviewed by Natsuko Oda

"Nagare no Uta / soul and soul" by Kiyoshi Suzuki, 1972 

"Nagare no Uta / soul and soul" is the first self-published book made by Kiyoshi Suzuki in 1972.  It is comprised of four sections from “Series: Tankou no Machi” (the colliery town) and his other projects.  “Series: Tankou no Machi” was originally commissioned by a photo magazine, “Camera Mainichi” and the article was issued six times from 1969 to 1970 right around the time he graduated from Tokyo College of Photography.

Suzuki started taking pictures for this project in Tokiwa coal mine while he was still a student at photography school. The idea came naturally to Suzuki since he was in fact born and raised in the same town.  In addition, Ken Domon's “Chikuho no Kodomotachi” (Patoria Shoten, 1960: Chikuho was another large coal mine town in Fukuoka) was so aspiring to him that it was a reason why he wanted to become a photographer.  Compared with the documental style of Domon, Suzuki’s work looks extremely personal.

Suzuki wrote ‘For my sister’ at the beginning and ‘so far days in my home town’ in the first chapter of the book.  They clearly indicate an autobiographical aspect of his work. Through his book, he tried to regain the fleeting memories of his own childhood as if a projector showed records of his earlier days.

Like the excellent first books by many other master photographers,  “Nagare no Uta” established his own unique style that was applied to his following projects. 

The image of a basin on the book cover is regarded as a prime example.  Suzuki repeated the motif of the round container filled with water in his other projects:  “Tenchi Gijou” (92), “Syura no Tani” (94) and “Durasu no Ryoudo” (98). Especially in “Tenchi Gijou” Suzuki was fascinated with an erotic element of a basin and introduced verse by his favorite poet, Mitsuharu Kaneko (1895-1975). (Kaneko made it when he was dreaming of traveling around Asia.)  In Kaneko’s poem ('Washbasin' in "Elegies to Women", Sogensha, Tokyo, 1949), a basin was depicted for cooking by people living in a small town in Indonesia and it was symbol of sturdiness and poverty. Kaneko also implies sentimental eroticism because prostitutes used a basin as a tool for making a quiet sad sound by urinating in front of their guests. 

Another important subject matter for Suzuki’s work is the circus.  Suzuki took a photo of a barnstormer in “Nagare no Uta” and, circus and homeless people in “Tenmaku no Machi.”  Suzuki discussed later that an idea came from the vivid memory of his childhood when his father brought him to a circus. He had a strong empathy and longing for lives of the people who moved aimlessly from place to place without any attachment.

(English translation by Alan Masters and Miwa Susuda)

Natsuko Oda: photobook writer, currently based in Hiroshima, Japan, specializes in Japanese photobooks in the 60s-70s, earned the Master of Arts in Photography and certificate of Museum of Art Counsil from Nihon University in 2000.  Master thesis on Diane Arbus.


Alan Masters: Photographer, photobook collector.  "Vers l'Est", his new monograph will be published in Spring 2014.

BOOK INFO:

Title: Nagare no Uta/soul and soul

Artist: Kiyoshi Suzuki

Designed: Kiyoshi Suzuki

Publisher: Self-published

Date: 1972

Size: 9.52×8.26 inches

Binding/page/printing:

ARTIST INFO: Kiyoshi Suzuki

Japanese, b. 1943-2000

Born in the Tokiwa coal town, Iwaki city, Fukushima.  After his graduation from a high school as a part-time student, he went to Tokyo and tried to become a cartoonist.  However, he soon gave up that option.  Meanwhile, Suzuki was highly influenced by Ken Domon’s photobook, ”Chikuho no Kodomotachi” (Patoria Shoten, 1960, “the kids in Chikuhou” / Chikuho was another large colliery town in Fukuoka) and he decided to become a photographer.  He entered Tokyo College of Photography and completed his study in 1969.

In 1970, he accomplished his first official work, “Series Tankou no Machi” for the photo magazine “Camera Mainichi” in 6 series (Tankou means coal mine).  For this project, he had the opportunity to travel all over the Japan and take many pictures in the several coal mines. Based on the project, he self-published “Nagare no Uta/soul and soul” in 1972.

Suzuki supported his own personal projects and family by working as a commercial sign painter and photography teacher at the Tokyo Collage of Photography over the thirty years.

He had published seven photobooks while he was still alive and "Shura no Tani" (Finish Dying) was nominated for the prestagious photo prize, Domon Ken award in 1992.  Except "The Ship of Fools" (IPC), all his books are self publications.

In 1976 “Braman no Hikari” (The light that has lighted the world)

In 1982 “Tenmaku no Machi  (Mind Games) (received 33^rd photographic association of Japan newcomer award).

In 1988 “Yume no Hashiri  (Street Shuffle) 

In 1991 “Gusha no Fune” (The Ship of Fools) published by IPC.

In1992 “Tenchi Gijo / Kiyoshi Suzuki Photographs 1990–92 ” (Southern Breeze)

In 1994 “Shura no Tani”(Finish Dying) (received the 14^th Domon Ken award) 

In1998 “Dyurasu no Ryodo”. (Durasia)

Bookmaking played a central role in Kiyoshi Suzuki’s career. He applied the same type of binding technique as the Japanese old literature book since literature is very important for his artistic development.  

Recently, Suzuki’s work had been reevaluated at the large institution in the world. In 2008, Machiel Botman, one of renowned Dutch photographers, curated the exhibition, “Kiyoshi Suzuki – Soul and Soul 1969-1999” at Noorderlicht Photo Gallery in Groningen, the Netherlands. His "Soul and Soul" was republished in 2008 by Aurora Borealis for this exhibition.  

In 2010, the other Suzuki’s important retrospective, “Suzuki Kiyoshi Hundred Steps and Thousand Stories" was held at the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo.  In 2011, “Nagare no uta” was republished by Hakusui sha, Tokyo.

File 4 "Form of Borders" by Motoyuki Shitamichi, 2012

Great photo books don’t have to be produced in lavish editions by large publishers and often times many of the greatest and most renowned photo books have been made by the artist’s own hands within very limited edition print sizes. It is historically well known that photo books and many other printed media have provided the photographers in Japan with more opportunities and freedom to express their creativity than what the exhibitions in the museums or galleries would typically allow.  Therefore, the self published books made in their earlier careers often become an ideal stage to assert their unique originality and affluent imagination.  Many collector’s most favorite Japanese titles include rare artist’s books from the early 70s to the present such as Araki Nobuyoshi’s “Sentimental Journey” (self-published, 1971), Daido Moriyama’s “Another country in New York” (self-published, 1974), Yukikazu Ito’s “Tetsuo” (Wall, 2006, ltd 350) and most recently Toshithugu Yamawaki’s “Dual 1” and “Dual 2” (Studio a la page, 2013, ltd 100) which was nominated for the best book award at the 6^th Fotobookfestival at Kessel in 2013. 

Motoyuki Shitamichi’s self published book, “Form of Borders” (Michi Laboratory, 2012), succeeds without exception in Japan’s great tradition of book making and eloquently evolves his life long theme of personal ‘borders’ subconsciously inhabited in landscape.  Shitamichi has been fascinated by those internal borders and has expanded his imagination through interacting with the people who reside in these given locations.  That’s because Shitamichi believes “Scenery is made up of nature and people's lives, like layers on top of one another".  There is no politically evocative element found in his work such as nudity, blood or crying babies, but just ordinary scenery we take for granted such as a beach, staircase, small roadside, sunset or a classroom.  Shitamichi denies any personal concerns with politics as a Japanese national; however, it is rather evident that there is a depth of pain, sorrow, resignation and monotony sowed into the undertones of his dark depiction of landscape that can be exclusively associated with Japanese history/culture and its unique identity. 

“Form of Borders” is comprised of 15 stories collected from the people in Niigata prefecture, text in both Japanese and English, printed in desert tan French fold paper, perfect binding overcoat with amber color glue.

BOOK INFO:

Title: Form of Borders

Artist: Motoyuki Shitamichi

Design/text: Motoyuki Shitamichi

Publisher, Michi Laboratory

Date: 2012

Size: 8.27 x 11.42 inches

Binding/page: French fold, 30 pages (60 pages including text parts inside pages

ARTIST INFO:

Motoyuki Shitamichi

b. Japanese, 1978

Graduated from Musashino Art University's Department of Painting in 2001, postgraduate studies at the Tokyo College of Photography. Shitamichi won the Gwangju Biennale Noon Award for emerging artists in 2012.  He has shown his work at the various institutions and galleries in Japan and abroad; “Fantomes” (2008/espase Japon, Paris), “Torii” (2008/Puffin Room, N.Y.), “Sunday Painter” (2010 /Contemporary Art Center, Ibaraki), “Dusk/Dawn” (2011/Nap Gallery, Tokyo). Artist-in-residence programs in: Cite International des Arts (2007-2008/ Paris), Tokyo wonder site Aoyama (2010-2011/ Tokyo), Aomori Contemporary Art Center (2011-2012/ Aomori).  He has published his books thru his own publishing company, Mich Laboratoy and Little More; 
2013 "torii", (Michi Laboratory, 2013)
 "Sunday Painter" (halken LLP, 2013), 
"Form of Border" (Michi Laboratory, 2012)
, "Sunday Painter", (Michi Laboratory
, 2010), "Bunkers" (Little More, 2005)

Motoyuki Shitamichi Official Wesbite