TheRealMurphy » japan

Limited Edition Print Sale to support Japan

therealmurphy — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:48:16 +0000

To support the people affected by the earthquake & tsunami, I’ve made an edition of ten prints for each of the following images I took the last time I was in Tokyo. All money from sales will be donated to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief.

Each 8×12 print is $40 and includes shipping within the US. Click images below to purchase.

Friday Inspiration – Shomei Tomatsu

therealmurphy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:04:07 +0000

Tomatsu was born in 1930 in Nagoya, Japan. While still a student, he already had his photographs published by the major Japanese photography magazines. He took a job with a Japanese publishing company but left after two years in order to freelance.

Shomei Tomatsu helped found an agency called Vivo, a group of young photographers who reached a broad public during the 1950s and 1960s by publishing their 35mm black and white images anonymously in magazines. Vivo’s members also exhibited their work in galleries as individual artists. Thus Tomatsu’s name and work came to be indelibly associated with postwar Japanese photography; for many years his images were created within Japan for a Japanese audience. After his initial engagement with the devastation and military occupation of post WWII Japan, he recorded impressions of counterculture as the country made an incredible recovery in the 1960s.

Tokyo in Half-frame 3

therealmurphy — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:41:24 +0000

Tokyo in Half-frame 2

therealmurphy — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:26:57 +0000

Tokyo in Half-frame

therealmurphy — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:04:20 +0000

I’ve just finished scanning all of my half-frame negatives from Japan. I hardly ever shoot vertically because I feel photos should be horizontal, like one’s eyes. But when I saw a little Japanese man at a flea market selling a half-frame camera that Daido Moriyama liked to use, I decided to buy it. Moriyama shot 100 rolls of film with the same half-frame camera on his first trip to New York. Since I would be going to Tokyo for a few weeks, I figured having 70 shots in each roll of film wouldn’t be a bad thing. More shots per roll equals less rolls to carry back home. If there’s one thing that Tokyo has taught me, it’s to be efficient.

Friday Inspiration – Michio Yamauchi

therealmurphy — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:31:12 +0000

Tokyo Images 4

therealmurphy — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:43:12 +0000

Tokyo Images 3

therealmurphy — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:39:25 +0000

Tokyo Images 2

therealmurphy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:24:15 +0000

Tokyo Images

therealmurphy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:19:48 +0000

Tune in Tokyo

therealmurphy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:11:20 +0000

So I’m in Tokyo right now and won’t be posting everyday. I’ve scheduled a few posts here and there, but mainly I’ll be back in full force by April.

Friday Inspiration – Nobuyoshi Araki

therealmurphy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:51:30 +0000

Nobuyoshi Araki was born May 25, 1940 in Tokyo, Japan and is considered one of the most prolific artists alive or dead in Japan and around the world. Having published over 350 books, many of his photographs are erotic while others have been called pornographic. Araki took his first photograph while in the 6th grade on a school trip to Nikko with a camera lent by his father. He chose to study photography in college and ended up working for a major advertising agency upon graduating.

A simple google search will bring up tons of his erotic images, but I like his lesser-seen work:

Araki’s official site is arakinobuyoshi.com.

There’s also a good interview at Japan Times.

Tsukiji Fish Market

therealmurphy — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:03:09 +0000

Located in Central Tokyo, Tsukiji Fish Market handles over 2000 metric tons of seafood per day. The market has been operating since 1935 and is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.

Japan 2

therealmurphy — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:16:50 +0000

Friday Inspiration – Daido Moriyama

therealmurphy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:04:58 +0000

“Photography is the act of fixing time, not of expressing the world. The camera is an inadequate tool for extracting a vision of the world or of beauty. The photographer who attempts to fit happily into the world by using the traditional perspective of the camera will end up falling into the hole of the idea he has dug for himself. Photography is a medium that only exists by momentarily fixing the discovery and cognition to be encountered in the ceaselessly moving exterior world.”

Daido Moriyama was born in Ikeda, Osaka in 1938. After becoming a freelance commercial designer at the age of 20, he began to study photography in 1960 and moved to Tokyo in 1961. Since then, he has published over seventy-five books.

Moriyama generally takes his photos with a compact 35mm camera, often without using the viewfinder. The results are black & white prints that are often stark and contrasting within itself. His images depict the collapse of traditional values in a post-war Japan and show the darker sides of urban life and the less-seen parts of cities, showing how life in these areas is being left behind other industrialized parts.

Read more about Daido Moriyama at moriyamadaido.com and see images from Memories of a Dog at Michael Dawson Gallery.

Japan

therealmurphy — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:06:55 +0000

Some shots from Tokyo.