Today is a cool rainy day and I have no plans.
and 60 sheets of Fuji 10×12 fiber paper
and a darkroom.
I guess I do have a plan and that is to enjoy the day printing photographs.
AND tomorrow is a Day Off for my school, which will be a great chance go into tokyo and check out photo galleries all day– Probably even that new big Araki exhibition in Ryogoku.
******** Printing now**********
My timing for prints in chemistry works like this: I play a CD in a cheap CD-Player, and the songs are rough guides as to the least amount of time that a print ought to be in the fixer. There was a point today when I thought to myself “Ok this one has been in for all of Billie Jean and half of Smooth Criminal” and so I could put it in the wash.
My Darkroom Day soundtracks usually start out with Metallica or Tool or Beck’s Midnight Vultures album and ALWAYS end with Nirvana Unplugged.
************
Finished! 7:30pm it was a long day. Now comes the clean-up, and a walk around the block to clear my lungs and mind.
This is what looks like.
This is a picture of me at the Omaha Zoo in July of 2004, taken by a 9th grade student of mine. A few pounds heavier (I spy several chins) and armed with a Nikon F2 and an F (that I regret selling), Soyoka took this awesome picture and I had no idea until later.
You can see why though. I feel very lucky to have been a major part of a very interesting photograph.
This is a scan of a color photocopy- and I really ought to see if I can’t borrow that negative from her to make a better print.
For the upcoming portfolio review at the Nikon Salon I thought I’d get together/print a portfolio of (black and white) work that I’ve found my self mulling over the past two years to show.
Ever since coming to Japan I’ve been shooting other foreigners (gaijin) I see on the street.
It was kind of a way at first to deal with the glares and usually comical forms of one-upmanship. Then I found that some of the pictures were kind of interesting. In particular it is the photographs where our eyes through my lens meet that interest me. It is only in a loose sense a “theme” and far less any kind of set plan to operate. I don’t go out looking for “Gaijin” but now-a-days they are quite easy to find.
By “Gaijin” I mean the kind Japanese expect; White Males from 18 years old and up. I’m not a photojournalist, I have no concern with giving fair time towards other minorities here and taking photo-ethnic whatever pictures simply because I don’t really care about that kind of thing.
I am more interested in what kind of picture is made when a obvious foreigner in an Asian country with a camera points that camera at another outsider.
1. It does not matter if you know that the photographer (me) is part of the group that they have concentrated their lens on to make the picture.
2. It does matter once you know this is true.
3. Or maybe it does not.
I don’t know yet which is why I keep working this way. If these (and I have many) photos were to be exhibited the greeting would read:
“we are in this together, whether you like it or not”
Most don’t like it, especially the ones who are here with their own cameras. At the very least most everyone gives me this Look which I can’t explain in words but maybe these pictures will help.
