Picture of the Week

Most histories of photography are Western-centric and barely mention the development of photography in the East. This week we focus on an important Japanese photographer, Shomei Tomatsu. Tomatsu  raised traditional photojournalism to new levels, making his work more representational, mirroring the rapid modernisation of Japan as it turned to the West. This is most clear in an untitled image from Tomatsu's Protest, Tokyo series from 1969. At this time of social change, Japan felt the reverberations of youth protest movements in the West and the Tokyo youth became highly politically engaged. The image I've chosen this week depicts a scene from a Tokyo street protest. Tomatsu captures the protestor  uniquely isolated from big crowds expected in such large protests, the background thrown into an abstract blur. To me this suggests a deep-seated uncertainty for the new Japan to emerge from Western influence: the currents of change are impossible to halt and whilst the youth collective provide a political challenge, their influence is fleeting.

© Tomatsu Shomei, Protest, Tokyo, from the Oh Shinjuku! series, 1969

(You might recognise the picture from the front cover of Haruki Murakami's The Wind Up Bird Chronicle)

Yashica Mat 124g

I've recently bought a Yashica Mat 124g. It's a beautiful camera to look at, the light meter is still working and  it's brilliant having a large waist-level viewfinder for composition. For those of you that don't know, the 124g is a TLR or Twin Lens Reflex Camera meaning one lens is used for composition in the viewfinder and the other is used for the capture. Most TLRs take 120 roll film instead of the more familiar 35mm film. This means the negatives are 6cm by 6cm, allowing wide enlargement and crisp results. I've just got a delivery of 120 roll film for the camera, loaded it (hopefully the right way) and taken my first shot. Hopefully the weather will play ball tomorrow and I can run through my first ever roll of 120 film. I'm really excited to see the crisp results!

Here is the camera next to a tea pot. The light is just lovely in my flat. You can only begin to appreciate it when it's captured:

Picture of the Week

Delay on the picture of the week this week. Apologies the PhD workload has been hectic recently with an annual review and a recent conference talk down in Dublin. Anyway, we will push on, better late than never.

This week our picture is taken by Philip Jones Griffiths and for me was one of the most poignant images in the current Northern Ireland: 30 years of Photography exhibition, at both the MAC and Belfast Exposed. The picture depicts a soldier staring stonily through a scratched plexiglass shield. It has an eerie ghost-like quality, where the visage seems to be slowly fading away right before our eyes. It's almost a metaphor for post-Peace Process Northern Ireland: a past that is slowly forgotten but still remains either in memory or photography.  

© Philip Jones Griffiths Soldier Behind Shield, Northern Ireland, 1973