in My Work, Process, Research

Thoughts – Photography beyond the Pictorialists and the ‘Salon’ aesthetics & Japan

After Zhang Wubin’s excellent lecture with regards to the trans-national movement of the Pictorialist movement into Asia, Wubin tended to exclude/include Japan within his discussions. As the ‘Salon’ Photography aesthetics (for a lack of a better term) seems to be still prevalent in the Asian world of Photography, I am intrigued as to what actually happened in Japan.

Based on my own research derived from a deep interest in Japanese contemporary photography culture, at least past WW2 — there exists a certain degree of ‘Salon’ Aesthetics still deeply imbued within. And perhaps the moment that shifted Japan’s photographic culture could be a result of the ‘Provoke’ Era. An era that possibility defined photography beyond the means of visually-pleasing aesthetics of the eye candy and a more informed consensus towards the nature of politics, discourse, and its inclinations into the world of art and photography.

Photographers within this period and who started this ‘Provoke’ movement were Takuma Nakahira (a personal favorite), Takahiko Okada, Yutaka Takanashi, Kôji Taki and later on the now infamous Daido Moriyama. We could also include Nobuyoshi Araki in (who currently has a show on @ DECK) but I think they were not too fond of his commercial leanings back when he was still a young photographer.

Takuma Nakahira – Adieu A-X

For a Language to Come

Takuma Nakahira had published a few essays that I believe was first introduced in the first edition of For A Language To Come. I found a (possibly) accurate translation in PDF here.

From A Language To Come

From A Language To Come

The nature of the ‘salon photography’ is still prevalent in Japan and many photographers do start out that way. You undergo a mentorship and after a period of time, you live it out by yourself. Some pine for awards to build a career out of it and some just do what they want, and successfully so.

But the photo competition nature still exists in Japan and as much as the Provoke Era artists were concerned about post-ww2 capitalism and socio-political economics, competitions still exist till this day.

Then this seems to beg the question as to how much did the Provoke Era really defined the contemporary photographic culture in Japan? The decision to disband after just 9 months, 3 (popular) publications and its Are-Bure-Boke (grainy, out of focus, ‘rough’) aesthetics gaining mainstream popularity going against what they believed in? The rejection of the capitalist ideology and its interception into art during its formative years and suddenly having the Provoke Era being part of this ecology. Maybe Takuma Nakahira did the right thing, as his works often tried to deal with the re-contextualization and the possible means of photography.

To me, it seemed that there will never be a break away from the ‘Salon Photography’ aesthetics. Nude/semi-nude/soft-core porn photography is widely prevalent within the photographic culture in Japan. Similarly, the popular nature of photography in Japan (I noticed that I saw more people holding cameras (excluding iPhones) in Japan than in Singapore) narrows down to the ‘Salon Photography’ aesthetics as a more accessible and viable medium to understand what photography is about.

There is nothing to say about the cliched, derivate images these hobbyists in camera clubs could produce under the aesthetic labeling of the ‘Salon Photography’. But what seems to be true, to me at least is that it feels difficult to break away from it.

Most photographers in Japan that I am aware of contributed greatly to magazines. Magazine work was a way to earn, build a portfolio and make a name out of yourself. We could possibly constitute anything that falls into a magazine as somewhat falling into Salon Photography.  Continuing on what Zhang Wubin’s suggestion that it could be an apolitical medium, magazines must first cater to a group of people. And with people comes ideas and consequently a political struggle of some sort. Therefore, taste becomes a prevailing topic here. Having an apolitical medium to bring in a varied taste ensures a good coverage of content vs readers and also pushing the aesthetics of a particular medium. In this case, magazine works were somewhat political, as each camera magazine would have a photographer convening his visuals and aesthetics through photography.

Iconic ‘camera club’ style magazines in Japan were Asahi Camera, Camera Mainichi, and Nippon Camera. These magazines often had iconic photographers such as Masahisa Fukase, Nobuyoshi Araki, Moriyama, Hajime Sawatari, Hiromi Tsuchida, Shunji Dodo and even Takuma Nakahira himself or the members of the Provoke movement.

 

 

Interesting to note that these camera magazines were catering to amateur/hobbyists photographers. It was about gear, less so about the images and yet most of these magazines were contributed by non ‘Salon Photographers’ per se, but art photographers/artists themselves. The editor of Camera Mainichi, Shoji Yamagishi had a big role in introducing more artistic work into a magazine catered for amateurs.

This begs to question — what is Salon Photography in Japan anyways? If an artist were to contribute work (that does not categorically fall into ‘Salon’ aesthetics) but succumbs to the ecology of the Salon Photography capitalist model, does the work loses its inherent quality of art?

But I think after doing this write-up, it was cool to see how much of an impact/no impact the Provoke Era had. A post-ww2 art collective/movement that strived against the modus operandi of the capitalist ecology soon become a part of it. Its style is still prevalent. Internet ‘street photographers’ champions and mimics Moriyama’s photographs without knowing the inherent intention of his work. You dump a few filters and ta-da! you get a Moriyama-esque photo. Take photographs of your spouse and be the next Nobuyoshi Araki.

Jokes aside, it is definitely not as easy then how I had written it. The Salon Photography aesthetics and culture seemed to have made a legitimate art form/movement/aesthetics into the means of highly derivate style.

  1. Dear Syarhrul,

    This is an excellent piece extending where Wubin’s lecture left off to current trends in Photography in Japan. You could develop this into an excellent publishable paper for the last half of the semester if you bring in present day photography in Japan.

    You’re dealing here with a movement in the 70s that still has elements of earlier styles and practices. I think your definition of “ecology” is way too narrow as you only deal with style in a limited amount of time. You would really have to bring in Japanese metaphysical notions of space,time, and nature(or anti-nature). that have permeated the culture for eons.

    This is FANTASTIC response to current materials forging ahead into your own time.
    Bravo.