Tokyo Polytechnic Graduation show
All the Art Schools in Tokyo are currently having their graduation exhibitions and last night I went to the Tokyo Polytechnic University exhibition on the 40th floor of Roppongi Hills.
This was the first time ever where I actually got off of the train at Roppongi Station. This was the first time in 10 years of constant and complete avoidance of the entire Roppongi district that I actually had a decent reason to go there.
Three reasons, actually– the first two being chances to see both Mika and Mai’s grad student portfolios and the third was the enjoyment of going through about 6 A3 sized books of photos by Kozaburo Iwakiri.
He not only seems to always be in the right place at the right time with his camera, but he also knows where to stand and when to release the shutter. This is really all there is to taking pictures. It also helps that he is a good editor of his own work, and this is the second part of photography.
Unfortunately he does not have a website, but if one is ever made you will hear about it here.
I only had time to see the photo gallery, and the work was displayed on large four-sided … forms? Walls? Boxes? Whatever, they were set up in the room like this:
All of the students were allotted one side of a Box-Wall / Wall-Box to show their work, usually 3 or 4 or maybe 2 pictures. Most displays had a small shelf at waist level with the graduation portfolio sitting there to be looked through. Most students had a little guest book for messages and a small stack of business cards besides their portfolios. It was quite similar to how the Canon New Cosmos show displays the work of the runners up, but probably different from photo grad shows in America or Europe.
The show is up until Sunday- which as of this writing is about 2 hours away.
