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The Foto Premio catalogue is published by Konica Minolta to commemorate the Foto Premio exhibitions held in the previous year. 2007 had 18 participants, and in the book each of us were alloted 2 pages for photographs and the text from our shows. I enjoyed the liberal use of Helvetica throughout.

whoa. Even though I did not realize that Araki’s expression was different in the reflection for several months after purchasing this magazine, I just now realized that the reflecting text reads “Araki Camera”.

In case you are not already my friend on Facebook (thus not being able to see my profile pictures) and you stay up late at night wondering how I might look posing with my Pentax, find out by doing this:

1.) Go to the bookstore and crack open a May 2008 copy of Nippon Camera.

2.) Open to the special section called “Go for it! Film Based Photography!”

3.) Read the interview with the Fuji Film folks where they say they will never stop producing photographic film, and why they are releasing a 6×7 camera this winter.

4.) Turn the page over and see this:

The gist of the whole section is that Analog provides something that Digital does not, mostly a love of process and experience, and that there are lots of people out there who choose to shoot film because they like it.   A gallery owner on the next page spoke of how if you are going to buy a print (and there are few in Japan who do) it ought to be a good silver print. I agree, and will say that I don’t care who took it– I would not pay more than 5 bucks for a digitally captured inkjet print made by any photographer.
Anyways, a few other Film Shooters are profiled, each one pictured holding a camera of our choice. Getting a haircut after the photo was taken– that is the opposite of how it should have been.

Last night a co-worker invited me to a dinner party put on by a few people that her younger sister worked for/with a while ago. The being invited to a party part was surprising enough, and was all the more enjoyable because the said sister is not only a set painter at Tokyo Disneyland, but also a Photographer and member of the Phat Photo mini hip empire. I had known about her for a while, and last night was our first chance to meet.

The second surprise was that I actually got on an Ayase Bound train at Meijijingu Mae instead of one that goes all the way to Abiko. This train does not go far enough to get me home and I did not realize my mistake until we arrived at the platform. It’s no problem to wait another 10 minutes for my Deeper-into-Chiba bound train but the platform is raised and it gets cold at night. After about 10 seconds of looking across to the neighboring building and down into the (oh so warm looking) Book-Off that sits a little lower than where I was standing I figured that I could wait shivering for my next train or see if there might be a cheap photobook or two to be had.

The Ayase platform is deceptively long, and you have to double back from the entrance to the Book Off. If they would only set up some zip lines from the platform roof you could easily glide down to the shop (with a spectacular crash through the window) and wouldn’t that startle all the people standing there reading the comics they are not going to buy?

The photography section was limited to the usual cheesy gravure books of nude B-list actresses and underage string bikini models, but in between an issue of Asahi Camera from 1997 and a Nikon D-1 Tips and Tricks magazine, I found the current issue of Phat Photo for half the cover price:

I flipped open to the page where Mai Tanaka is featured as a “Second Generation” Phat Photo contributor:

This was not a surprise because the last time I was at Village Vanguard in Shimokitazawa I saw this page while flipping through their photo book section.

A few pages later I was slightly surprised to see Yasuhiko Uchihara’s photography featured:

Slightly, but not Terribly surprised because he is up-and-coming, and his book just came out last month or so. He utilizes the Bright Dryness of digital photography extremely well. You should buy a copy. The pink hue in the picture is not Bright Dryness, but rather a visual result a cheap digital camera makes as it slowly dies.

I flipped a few pages more and stared at the model with the camera bag that is featured in this issue:

The staring lasted probably a few moments longer than it should have before I realized that I just spent the past 3 hours sitting next to this woman while we ate and talked photography. And lo, there in the picture you can see the D-80 and Contax Aria which she shoots with. No word on if she actually uses that bag or not.

NOTE: While writing this I was surprised to see how often I typed SUPRISE, which is closer to how it sounds to my ears. Like the SUP from “Supper” blended in with “RISE” like the Emperor says in that wacky scene at the end of Star Wars Episode 3. Speaking of Supper, is this another Mid-Western thing like “Pop” and “Drug” ?