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So the first ever Totem Pole Photo Gallery slideshow was a success. A fair number of people turned out for an almost crisp autumn evening of photography in a park in Shinjuku.

It looked like this:

But to get to this point myself and the 9 other members arrived in the afternoon to get things ready.

First the screen needed to be hung:

The projectors needed to be set up:

And tested:

Something on all of our minds was the question What would the neighbors think but thankfully they didn’t think much, as far as I know. The park is surrounded by residential buildings, most of which had pretty good views of the screen. The other type of neighbors we were wondering about -aka the local cops- didn’t stop to say hello and what in the hell are you doing, show me your party permit. (thankfully) I did see one police officer whiz by on his white bicycle but he didn’t turn his head to even glance at the illuminated jury-rigged screen and 50-plus people in the park.

Speaking of the audience, throughout the evening people showed up. Stools were on hand for sitting and it was pretty casual. It wasn’t too cold this evening, either. Excellent weather for photo-watching.

This guy had a pretty good seat:

As for the event itself, each member used anywhere from five to ten minutes to share their work with the audience. Each member stood before the audience and in-between the sounds of traffic on the nearby street and helicopters going too and fro from the nearby Ministry of Defense, gave an introduction before starting their set. Most had music playing. A lot were pretty serious and well timed. I had it in my head to load up 900 digital images onto a USB drive and chaotically flip through them in my allotted six minutes. (Most are images from here and here) Nearly every day I frantically shoot a few dozen digital images so it made sense to share them with a similar sense of immediacy. I’m not quite sure what was said in the audience as I approached felony levels of near epileptic fit-making but a few folks later said they preferred my digital work to the Serious (note capital letter) black and white Street Work I labor to put on walls. This is something I think about more than I let on on this blog.

The gallery remained open with its current exhibition up on the walls- another episode of Tatsuya Shimohira’s well named and ongoing two-person exhibition series: The Historic Future. I’m going to say that those who were able to hang around after the show for the after-party had a good time. I know I did.

If there’s one thing that I want to share through this blog and the other venues I have online it is that there is a really chill and approachable photo scene here in Tokyo. Keep in mind that Totem Pole is not the scene, but rather a part of something bigger. It’s important to get out and make real connections with real people, see and talk about some pictures, and to just have a good time. I met some old friends and made some new ones. It’s great to see these kinds of things happen.
It’s fun to get to be part of something that makes them happen.

Yesterday I arrived at the gallery with prints in hand and then spent 6 hours in the gallery hanging the show.
About 4 hours after matting and framing everything it looked like this:

The last two hours were spent ordering, hanging and measuring spaces between frames.

Preparation went down like this- – I showed up with 20 prints in a box, with about 30 more alternate pictures just in case. Shinya Arimoto had already set up the laser level (on a Gitzo tripod in the first photo) and had the frames out of storage. The mats (book-mats) that I had ordered were already at the gallery so everything was in place.
Arimoto showed me the procedure:

1. Fold small pieces of paper into triangles to make corners for the prints.
2. Open book mat cover, lay print down. Close cover, gently position print into place.
3. Set a weight on the print and re-open the cover. Set paper triangles on 3 corners and tape down. Close mat again.
4. Take a frame, pop out metal springy supports and unscrew two set screws on the back to remove one side.
5. Carefully pull out the glass and wood backing.
6. Squirt glass cleaner on one side and rub it down with a cotton gloved hand. Set aside when dry.
7. Lay matted print on the wooden backing.
8. Lay cleaned glass face down on print. Clean the new top side with cleaner and glove.
9. Gently slide glass, mat, print, and wooden backing back into frame.
10. Replace side of frame and tighten set screws. Insert metal braces.
11. Repeat entire procedure 19 more times.

And then- – set frames around the room in approximate positions.

Turn on the laser level and hammer two nails (and sometimes a finger) along the laser line for each frame.
The hardest part was perhaps determining the order of the images, although compared to matting it was more enjoyable.

Finally, hang the frames and use a postcard to keep the spacing even.

Amazing what mats, frames, and lighting can do for your photos:

The end result looks pretty good- it is a traditional sort of show, white mats and all. I’d like to do larger prints pinned to the wall in a future exhibition but unlike most buildings in America (or at least those which exhibit art) the air conditioner in the gallery is only on when someone is there to push the power switch. So in summer the humidity would mess with everything and could make for some droopy pictures.

So anyway, the show is up from today. Ought to be a fun week.