1. The editor of Photo Contest Monthly telling me to bring back 20 photos from the 150 or so I took with me to show him for possible publication as an article in his magazine.
2. After that going with Onishi Sensei in a cab to Ginza to a photo exhibition opening party which like a lot of the other ones I have been to featured free sushi, beer, and a lot of the same people in the Art Photography Community in Tokyo. Folks that I have met at galleries and the like. Making connections and a presence, that is a good time.
3. After that walking to Hibiya station on the main street in Ginza and nearly literally running into Mike Harpending with his F5 around his neck. We scooted over to a Wendys and then after that headed for his hotel in Akasaka where I suprised his wife, my Japanese Mom, Ogawa Sensei. She is one of two ladies who are not my actual mother whom I still have been called “son” by. Takako sensei, the other one, was there as well. Tonight: Dinner and Catching Up!
Kimono Hime
What I like about it: The title is Kimono Hime (princess). A perfect world (or Japan) would look more like an Akira Yamaguchi drawing, and women would go out dressed in the kimonos that are shown in this magazine. A blend of tradition and modern (OMG I am soooo a Japan Blogger when I make that observation LOL!!!!!!!!1) however the “Modern” I am talking about is the historical nineteen thirties type of Modern. Closer to Takehisa Yumeji than that hollywood geisha flick. The magazine also goes in depth as to how fabrics are dyed, woven, and matched for the season. The travel sections highlight retro areas of Japan and the foods and things you can try there. The issue above has a few pages on Hachijyou Island and their special kimonos.
Photography: Great! Vivid color for the studio shots, which sometimes in the final product have been added to with other media, usually collage and sometimes old wood block prints. Location pictures are soft but not ridiculously dreamy. The models all look Great, and by my definition of Great, normal people would say “very japanese”. No shibuya girls here– lots of ladies with jet black hair and straight-across (patsuun!) bangs.
General mood: Elegant with just the right balance of graphics and text, not unlike (again with the reference) a Takehisa Yumeji print. See that Taisho/early Showa style hand written title at the top of the cover? That is the mood.
Kimono Hime (a shodensha mook, published every once in a while, 1200 yen)
Tokyo Graffitti
It is a magazine about: Tokyo and the people who live here.
What I like about it: It is so gosh darn wholesome in a liberal way* without being preachy. You not only get to see what people are wearing, but also read via a marker-board and their own handwriting, what they are thinking. It at first glance looks like just another Street Snap fashion magazine, but after you work your way through it, it’s true charm comes out. It is a social survey of a publication that runs off of Photography- either as a catalog of faces and thoughts (one page for young hipsters, another for gaijin, one for young mothers or salary-men, religiously employed folks and old people), or through the element of time, where they will recreate a family snapshot with the same people in the same poses years later. A different take is when they have a snapshot of a man or woman taken years ago, and on the opposite page there will be a photograph of their son or daughter in the same pose in a similar location. This is also a text heavy magazine, so each photograph is accompanied with a lot of written information.
Photography: Straight, “New Color”- I don’t know what it is really called but imagine a “Rinko Kawaguchi meets William Eggleston” kind of color style. The photographs are not saturated and they are instead that kind of hip bluish greenish tone like you see in all those recent camera and photo (and other types of sophisticated living themes) magazines that are aimed at the 20 something Japanese Woman market. The photographs are intelligently made and most would have no problem being seen on a gallery wall. The monthly “Portrait of the Nuclear Family”photo, a full page photograph of a young father and mother in the tub with their newborn comes to mind.
General mood: Real respectful of people. I have yet to detect any of that stuck up irony that modern American publications seem to reek of. Like the photographs the magazine is open, fair, and beautiful. What other publication is going to take the time to show you the dreams in life of not only the harajuku hipster freetaa crowd, but also those Kabuki -cho hosts and Akihabara Otakus? And to do it with good taste for the right reasons, that’s why it’s worth buying each month.
Tokyo Graffiti: New Generation Magazine (monthly, 480 yen)
* In that it fairly treats same-sex couples like they are in true loving relationships. (gasp)
