Tokyo, May 2008

Some photos from my recent trip to Tokyo.

GARAGE SHOW

If you are in San Francisco you should check out the show organized by my friends from GARAGE magazine. I'm in it together with Estevan Oriol, Shawn Barber ...

SHIFT, Japan

http://www.shift.jp.org/en/archives/2008/06/boogie.html

holga

... another thing I love about HOLGA is that it's cheap, $30 average, so it's equal opportunity for all, no excuses... it's never about equipment, it's your eye that matters, if there's a will there's a way. 

JOIA MAGAZINE, CHILE

JOIA MAGAZINE, Santiago, Chile. 

DAMN ! SOOOO GOOOOD !

Eddy and me in Tokyo (I'm the one on the left)

(photo probably by Hiromi Otsuka, can't remember anymore ...)

SKINHEADS

Two great skinhead photo books I highly recommend:

SKINS by Gavin Watson (ST Publishing 1994)
Born in 1965, one time skinhead Gavin Watson started taking pictures of his friends, the Wycombe skins, in the 1980s, using an Olympus OM-1 that his dad gave him. The result was this brilliant collection of images capturing the essence of skinhead culture way before it was demonized. The images are so intimate, it is obvious they were done by someone who was living it.

And the foreword is one of the best ever, here is the part of it:
"... The beauty of starting at the bottom is that you can only go up. Unless you choose to stay at the bottom of course. All I hope for this book is that it inspires. Inspires the people in it, and people like them, to do something and be something. Genius is not confined to large corporations or the educated classes. It's in us all. The odds might be stacked against you, but that's only if you play by their rules. Better to cheat, and better still to start your own game with your own rules. Even if you don't succeed, at least you'll know you tried and will have some great stories to tell your grandchildren ..."







Browsing the internet, I found out that VICE is doing a follow up book, which will be distributed by POWERHOUSE BOOKS.

SKINHEAD by Nick Knight (Omnibus Press, 1982)
This one is something like a "skinhead handbook" - what to wear, what to listen to, how to cut your hair etc ... but it's loaded with powerful imagery from the beginning of the skinhead movement. Again, very intimate pictures, great access, amazing eye. Amazing.







After paying his dues in street photography, Nick Knight moved on to become one of the best fashion photographers around. To check out his website, click here.

VIEW FROM MY LIVING ROOM WINDOW IN BELGRADE |||HOLGA|||

TOKYO FIRE

Just processed some films from Tokyo. This is from the first morning ... of course, I woke up at 3am, jet lagged as fuck, then went out for a walk around 5am. I was the only sober person in Shibuya. After a brief encounter with a bunch of drunk guys, 

I saw some thick black smoke in the distance. I started walking, then running in that direction. A truck was burning on an overpass ... I was one of the first people on the scene - a couple of taxi drivers pulled over to take some cell-phone pictures, but there were no firefighters there yet. There was no way to get on to the overpass so the closest I could get was right underneath - I took a couple of shots, and then while I was changing the roll - BOOOOOOOOOM, an explosion, probably the gas tank. I had ashes on my tee and I smelled like bbq. Soon the firefighters arrived and the whole thing became pretty boring, just another firefight. 

Some HOLGA images:

I mentioned this incident to Daido Moriyama when we met, and he said "... YOU CAUSED THE ACCIDENT. YOUR DAUGHTER IS MAKING YOU TOO HAPPY ..." and I have to say he might be right. 

MEETING DAIDO

I MET WITH DAIDO MORIYAMA IN TOKYO IN MAY 2008.






(photo of Daido and me was taken by Hiromi Otsuka) 

AGAT 18

While in Tokyo, I shot a roll of b&w film with my AGAT 18 half-frame camera that I bought in Belgrade for 10 DEUTSCHMARKS (it would be equivalent to 5-10 EURO, no idea) 15 years ago ... yep, the results are pretty dissapointing, but shooting with shitty cameras is fun, so wtf. 

||||||| HEADACHE ||||||| a couple of recent shots