Archives: Minoru Shimizu

Beyond trompe l’oeil – how Shunsuke Kano learns from the past Inspired by the “1968 – Japanese Photography” exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, it seems I devoted a few too many columns in the second half ofView More >

Provoke and Con-pora VI Shigeo Gocho reconsidered: Familiar Street Scenes In Self and Others, the relationship conveyed via the photographs is limited to that between the self and others standing face to face, and the stage for the absorption inView More >

Provoke and Con-pora V: Shigeo Gocho Self and Others Reconsidered In my opinion only one individual, Shigeo Gocho, strikes me as standing out in this period as a representative of the theatrical first-generation post-modernist type. It would be impossible toView More >

Provoke and Con-pora IV: Post Con-pora Expression The Con-pora photography of Japan has a characteristic that the original Con-pora photography could never have had. That is, an American flavor that was somewhat liberated from the prevailing sense of Japan atView More >

Provoke and Con-pora: In the blank space of ‘1968 – Japanese Photography’ (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography) III Every aspect of society has been turned into image, into media. The utopian “exterior” of the world is gone, and the worldView More >

Provoke and Con-pora: In the blank space of ‘1968 – Japanese Photography’ (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography) II Awareness of the fact that, as a result of the inundation of image information, the real world itself is being turned intoView More >

Provoke and Con-pora: In the blank space of ‘1968 – Japanese Photography’ (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography) I Shigeo Gocho, from the series “Hibi – Day to Day” (1967-70) Settling the question of whether theories on Con-pora are correct hangsView More >

Flowers of Japan: Katsuyuki Shirako: “exhibition 4” @ eN arts untitled (2009), from the “scribble” series. All images: © Katsuyuki Shirako, courtesy eN arts, Kyoto. In every genre, the postwar Japanese craft movement has experienced the misfortune of splitting intoView More >

From ‘negative’ eternity to ‘positive’ eternity: Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto – SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II (Part 2) Scene from Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II. © Sugimoto Studio, courtesy ofView More >

From ‘negative’ eternity to ‘positive’ eternity: Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto – SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II (Part 1) Scene from Mansai Nomura and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s SANBASO, divine dance Kami hisomi iki II. © Sugimoto Studio, courtesy ofView More >