_valerian

Upon his invitation*, this evening I attended Hiromi Tsuchida’s opening reception for his wonderful solo retrospective; 土田ヒロミのニッポン / Tsuchida Hiromi’s Nippon.
I only had time for a quick lap around the gallery, and the crowd of people made it hard to get close to the photographs. The original prints are gorgeous, and there is so much going on in all of them. They each deserve to be read, and hopefully a weekday morning of my winter break can be spent doing just that. Some thoughts on the work will be written after that.
The accompanying catalogue is a veritable Greatest Hits album, the kind of CD you buy even though you already have all those songs on 6 different disks and know them by heart. The “linear notes” (2 essays on Tsuchida’s work) are excellent and any Photo Book this good for 2500 yen is a deal. (however the Book Nerd in me would have paid twice more for a hardcover with slightly better print quality).

*His Word just barely got me in, as the desk ladies tersely informed me that the party was for guests with paper invitations only. It could have been about the free food and drink, but having turned down free alcohol every time it has been offered in the past 2 weeks (tonight being the 3rd time) it’s not like I was about to break my (28 year) streak by consuming any of the wine. This is not something I even wanted to try to explain. However having a business card helped, and so did the fact that Naoko was right behind me in line. We had not seen each other since May, so I’d like to think that her knowing who I was (and suprise at our accidental meeting) lent an air of legitimacy to my cause.

もしかしてネガなくなちゃった？
でもパソコンのフィアルまだあるはずんじゃない？
ところで＃２の写真の色は微妙に#１より赤いです。面白い。

HIGHLIGHTS:

-Walk-a-round/talk-a-bout discussion time with Onishi sensei last night, and Tsuchida sensei this afternoon.

-Meeting Mr. Digikazi and his lovely wife for the first time.

- Spending at least 2 hours a day (9 on the weekend) in the same room with the same 30 photographs on 3 walls. This in itself has been quite a photographic education.
CHALLENGE 1: Limit yourself to 30 photographs (Prints!) and put them on the wall and just deal with those alone for a week. Live with them.
CHALLENGE 2: Really look at one picture (a print!) for more than 3 solid minutes. Try it! Try 5 or 10 minutes and see what it shows you and tells you.

-Also! Many people have been fine with letting me get in close with my camera in the gallery and you will probably see some more Visitor Photographs here Sunday evening.

-BONUS! (on the way home from the gallery) I found a copy of Ume Kayo’s Ume-me at Book Off for 900 yen.

-BONUS 2 New photos! –> ongoing diary.

THINGS THAT WERE NOT HIGHLIGHTS:

-I will not eat a Ramen Dinner, and then a Ramen Lunch followed by another Ramen (tan-tan men) dinner in less than 24 hours ever again. People this is a bad idea and I got off at the station before mine to stretch my usual 15 minute walk home into an hour-long ordeal, something that involved telling 4 different whores NO in 2 minutes; PLEASE DO NOT GET IN MY WAY LADIES (and that one creepy dude).