Adventures in Pixiv
Pixiv is the deviantArt of Japan. Except, it is better. Well, sort of. The cool thing about Pixiv is that its top-ranked illustrators eventually get to throw their own themed art shows, or they get to participate in an attractive, user-generated limelight. Online art communities that swiftly and obsessively encourage brick-and-mortar efforts are uncommon: it’s a business model that should, in effect, work wonders. But it is tough to pull off. Hoping to become more internationally-minded, I joined Pixiv last year to see how the community worked. Immediately I can admit that not everything on the site is clearly navicable for an American, ...Read more
filed under: art
tags: art japan pixiv pixiv zingaro online art community art social network
shhhhh Yurie Nagashima
Please excuse my Japanese… Going along a parallel with Nobuyoshi Araki, the blog today is concerned with the photographs of the subtler, diary-like artist Yurie Nagashima. Nagashima won the Urbanart Award in Tokyo in 1993 when she was only 22, for her series Kazoku. The work won her much esteem and fame among Tokyo as well. Kazoku, like Araki’s work, challenges the traditional culture of Japan with nudity, but with Nagashima’s work, the nudes are of herself and her family. These images (apart from the nudity) read as average family portraits, I find it a courageous statement that combines a shock value with family-values. Since then, her work remains to be centered a...Read more
Araki the Enigmatic and Prolific!
Japan’s most notorious photographer Nobuyoshi Araki was born of sandal making parents in 1940. Since then he has become a firmly established photographic legend, most notably (and most regrettably) for his “pornographic” nudes. He has said of himself “If I didn’t have photography, I’d have absolutely nothing.” What I find most appealing about his work, is that he has no filter. He has a diary like style, that records everything from Tokyo streets, flowers, meals, sadomasochisms, and his wife’s bones after cremation. He has published over 300 books of photographs. His Ethos of photography is that the camera is an extension...Read more
Masao Mamamoto's Photographic Haiku
Masao Yamamoto is a famous Japanese photographer who successfully interperets his knowledge of existence through his photography. Yamamoto's images are simple, nostalgic, and elegant. They are suggestive and original, and can be preceived in many ways. He tells us, without explanation, about the human experience. Yamamoto exposes us to one of his influences: a Japanese calligrapher-poet named Ryokan. Yamamoto describes his respect for Ryokan's work by admiring his ability to "describe simply the movement of a leaf trembling as it falls" in one of his haikus. This poem can be interpreted in several ways. The falling leaf could be a metaphor for life, the ri...Read more