Paper? 150 sheets.
Film? 60 more rolls.
Fixer? 3 packs.
HC-110? One bottle. Enough for now.
The Light colored squarish book shape in the picture is indeed a book. And last night’s impulse purchase. It is the collected work of Shiego Gocho. I will not be able to make it to the exhibition of his work which is up now at the Mitaka City Gallery of Art, so the book is the next best thing. And what a book—! It is what more photo books ought to be like- none of that “one photo printed on two pages” nonsense. Each photo sits comfortably on it’s own page. The printing quality is top notch- not far from the photo book from which I tend to judge all other photo book quality: Winogrand 1964.
Physical aspects aside, the photos themselves are deeply moving. There is this persistant feeling of the photographer’s presence in a lot of his work- normally this is exactly the type of thing that drives me away from most photographs and photographers, but with Gocho it does just the opposite. His color work in particular impressed me the most- He handled all of the elements of a good photograph- moment, time, light, use of the frame- in such a sensitive and sometimes heart breaking manner. Some of the photos are unsettling in their own innocent way, and at times I felt a queazy sense of desperation.
I bought the book at Book 1st in Lumine in Shinjuku. It was nice to find a stunning collection of photographs among all the usual inane toy-camera-fuzzy-sky-shot-from-the-hip photography books that populate the Art sections of Tokyo bookstores. Ugh. If I never see another super trendy and shallow book of neon pink flowers or saturated blue skies again I will be quite content.
Recently I have been listening to the Beastie Boys To the 5 Boroughs.
theonion explains it better than I can-
“When not raising pop- and junk-culture referencing to an art form, indulging their love for silly voices, sampling old-school sound bites, or spitting braggadocio, the Beasties soft-sell inclusiveness and basic human decency with the same infectious high spirit they once brought to celebrating boorishness and bad behavior.”
read the whole article here
I have also been listening to:
Smokey and Miho
Metallica, Ride the Lightning
Astrud Gilberto
RJD2
Ilford RC Pearl photo paper 11×14 50 sheet packs X 3 or 4
Fuji NeoPan/Presto 400 Film (36 ex. 20 pack) X 2 or 3
Fuji Fixer X 2 packs
Kodak HC-110 X 2
Yesterday was payday, and after work I will head on over to Shinjuku’s Yodobashi Camera to get the things I need to finally print some pictures. For printing all I really need is the photo paper- the rest of the list is for film processing. It is going to be great to get back into a darkroom again. I can’t let little things like lack of proper ventalation or an absence of heating or air conditioning distract me, not when there are 50 sheets of negatives to work from.
Check out my custom leica M6 TTL O.58 camera. It has a bad-ass square of black tape over where a red dot that says “Leica” normally is. This possibly makes me a Rebel among some True Believers. Or it gives me some street cred. Whatever. I just think it looks stupid with that glaring red dot facing out to the world when I take a picture. Some folks get quite caught up in the passion of caring either way how their M6 looks. I also have screwed on a Nikon soft shutter release (350yen!) and the camera is hooked to an excellent camera strap.
The lens is a Cosina Voigtlander 28mm 3.5 Color-Skopar. Film is always Fuji Neopan/Presto 400. I do not see a need to bring along other lenses when shooting unless they are mounted to another camera. If I had the money there are several cameras here that I would not mind having in my camera bag. Too bad the Olive Paint M3 was sold. And too bad that I have never had 378,000 yen to spend on a camera no matter what color it may be…
