“If I already have a vision, my work is almost done. The rest is a technical problem.” Hiroshi Sugimoto Today we reviewed the latest issue of Aperture. This issue the theme was "Tokyo" and some contemporary Japanese photographers. As usual, the narrative was complicated as to direction and difficult to decipher the messages relating to the theme. But with that being said, a few generalizations could be garnered from he magazine. The roots of Japanese photography date back to the discovery of photography. This issue focused on photographers from 60's to 80's and to this current day. Photographers of the 60's and 70's worked with a backdrop of social upheaval and experimented to engage their changing world...much like the photogs in other countries. Galleries were not available to show photography so instead they founded numerous magazines that served as the showcase for their pictures. These magazines came and went and now many are being revived visually to recapture the images of the time One of the most influential of the photographers and magazine creators was Takuma Nakahira and the magazine was called "Provoke" Nobuyoshi Araki is a photographer who lost sight in his left eye. Subsequently, he produced a uniques body of work combining two sets of images in juxtaposition to one another. The Japanese photographers over the decades focused at times on work that bordered on pornography then later to the urban environment and street photographers. Takashi Homma used a camera obscura to capture the urban architecture...using the architecture of the place as camera. Finally, below is an example of a contemporary Japanese photographer we all have seen here in LA at the Getty and galleries, Hiroshi Sugimoto. Noted for his dioramas and landscapes Lastly we noted the contribution ofJapanese camera makers...and there are many of them... Nikon, Canon, Yashika, Sony, Mamiya, Pentax, Rollei and a host of others. In addition it was noted the role Japanese camera makers have in parts for German cameras.
We briefly chatted about the globalization of photography esp with sites e.g. Instagram. We finished off our day by paying tribute to a special photo taken "far, far away"....actually 3 Billion miles away...Pluto. We did not talk about the fact that the visual technology is more than a decade old!!
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A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving Lao Tzu Today, we were privileged to have Dominique Moody visit with us and discuss her life and work. Tracing her artistic roots via her family life, Dominique used the metaphor of family travels and her current day Nomad Project. She described her earliest artistic efforts were directed to envisioning the many homes she experienced as her family relocated from place to place. Her formal training occurred in several art centers…with her specialty ultimately being assembly art. In part this was driven by her losing the majority of her eyesight to a rare form of hereditary macular degeneration in her twenties. With that eyesight loss, Dominique explained she never lost her “vision.” Her current project is her living and studio space…and is movable... NOMAD (pictured above). Her goal is to travel and take her studio with her stopping in places where there is no art space. In these places she will be an artist in residence. NOMAD is acronym for Narrative, Odyssey, Manifesting, Artistic, Dreams. She has exhibited her work in many museums, galleries and public spaces. Recently she received her first public space commission from the LA County Arts Commission for the new Martin Luther King Hospital in South Los Angeles. Clearly, she has the genes for her artistic and nomadic existence as well as the brilliance and genius to execute the art she produces. Her art, as she explained, is in many ways a self-portrait of her life. Searching for her name on Google will provide you with more than ample
reading about her life and work. Thank you Dominique for visiting with us today… and thank you Steve for arranging the visit and logistics. |
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