Exercise 2.15: Japanese connections
Read Miranda Gavin’s reviews of Anders Petersen’s French Kiss and Jacob Aue Sobol’s I, Tokyo for Hotshoe magazine and research the work of Daido Moriyama. Write a short reflective commentary about the connections between the styles of Moriyama, Petersen and Sobol. (Open College of the Arts, 2014:52).
My reflections:
I remember seeing some of Moriyama’s images at the London Photo Show last year which prompted me to buy the book Daido Moriyama (Nishi et al, 2001). As a co-founder of the 1960s magazine Provoke, he tested the conventions of photography, grainy and blurry images were more than acceptable and he pushed photography to the extreme (Nishi et al, 2001) and chaotic.
Looking at Peterson’s approach the influence of Moriyama is clear, in particular in Moriyama’s work Limited edition vintage prints; there is the same stream of consciousness in his images, one idea leaping to the seemingly unrelated next.
Jacob Aue Sobel and Anders Petersen, both Scandinavian photographers made the book “Veins”(2014) together where their work is presented in the same book but in two halves; with their subject matter and style it would be difficult to distinguish their work had it been mixed. They are both drawn to seediness, nudity, blood intimacy, and “human strangeness”, but Peterson’s work is a little softer. Sobel like Peterson uses full bleed images without captions, but they are less blurry.
Sobel said that Petersen showed him photography is a way of life in itself “Just the way he immerses himself in the subject. You look at his pictures and you feel that he had to make them. For him, photography is an obsession as well as an art form.” (O’Hagan, 2013).
Both the style of photography and some of the subject matter between the three photographers has similarities:
- Interest in minutiae
- Expressionist approach
- Black and white format
- High contrast -extremes of light and dark
- Harsh tones
- Strong emotion
- Unconventional composition
- Private/intimate and sexual connotations
- Suggestive juxtaposition
Moriyama was the forerunner and Sobel created the later more contemporary work, they all photographed what could be called intimate documentary, however Peterson and Sobel developed their own styles from this. I have to say that though I was drawn to Moriyama’s work, I find Peterson and Sobel’s work disturbing and hard to find the same simplicity and beauty in.
References:
Daido Moriyama: Vintage Prints (2013) At: https://aperture.org/blog/daido-moriyama-vintage-prints/ (Accessed 27/06/2020).
Magnum Photos Photographer Portfolio (2020) At: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZRBG (Accessed 27/06/2020).
Nishii, K. and Moriyama, D. (2001) Daido Moriyama. (London): Phaidon Press.
O’Hagan, S. (2013) ‘Veins: a Scandinavian photobook full of blood, nudity and human strangeness’ In: The Guardian 04/11/2013 At: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/04/veins-anders-petersen-aue-sobol-photographs (Accessed 27/06/2020).
selected works « ANDERS PETERSEN (2020) At: http://www.anderspetersen.se/category/selected-works/ (Accessed 27/06/2020).
Photography 2: Documentary 