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The Swiss wanderer who found the soul of 1950s Japan
- askin4it 5y agomay also be of interest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/368 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/368
- luaybs 5y agoThese are beautiful
- ekianjo 5y agoif you cherry pick 10 pictures out of thousands I certainly hope those 10 will be beautiful
- doctorhandshake 5y agoThat’s called ‘editing’ and I’m not sure but it sounds like you’re implying the practice undermines the quality of work like photography, when in fact it’s arguably a more important part of the practice than aiming the camera and releasing the shutter.
- ekianjo 5y agoYou will inevitably get 10 good shots out of thousands if you randomly take pictures everyday, anywhere, anytime. You can judge the quality of one's work only by its consistency, not by cherry-picking.
- doctorhandshake 5y agoI’m not really sure I’ve ever heard a photographer aside from Hype Williams tout the efficiency of their use of film as an important thing about their work, and I know I’ve never heard anyone cite it as a reason a photographer is good at their craft. Many photographers, including some regarded as the best portrait photographers working today, take photos by running the motor drive, generating up to 10 images a second, doing so in bursts through photoshoots that can last 30 minutes to hours, in the end only choosing one photo of thousands to present as the result of that session. You’d have a hard time convincing me that a subjectively equivalent image that is the product of a shoot where the shutter is pressed less often is the work of a ‘better’ photographer. The number of images rejected from an edit just isn’t a factor in the quality of a photographer’s output.
- inatreecrown2 5y agothe first photo especially is breathtaking
- unnouinceput 5y agoI found the 6th to be the breathtaking one for me
- 1cvmask 5y agoIt's pictures like this that made me fall in love with National Geographic. The fortunes that were spent documenting different parts of the world when a picture really brought color to life even though they were black and white photos for a very long long time. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2013/dec/06/national-geographic-around-the-world-125-years-travel-photography https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2013/dec/06/natio...
- enaaem 5y agoOld analog pictures have a really nice quality to them. Colours are rich and vibrant without looking too fake. They are often taken on 35 mm film, which means a natural shallow dept off field. I really enjoy browsing through the box of old pictures from my youth. Everyone above 30 probably has their youth snapped on film, while most pics nowadays are shot on phones. I wonder how someone 40 years in the future would look back at 2021 iPhone pictures of themselves?
- ImprovedSilence 5y agoIve actually just started to take the time, once a year, to go through all my phone photos, and print out a couple hundred of them and put them in a photo album. I suspect they’ll still be around when me and my iCloud account are long gone, for the grandkids to discover in their parents basement.
- m_st 5y agoThey'll be overwhelmed because there are so many photos and movies. I honestly already struggle to share them all with my kids aged 13 and younger.
- teekert 5y ago"I wonder how someone 40 years in the future would look back at 2021 iPhone pictures of themselves? " I make so many pics and videos that I really hope it will be something like this: "Hey locally run AI that guards my data and privacy, please show me about 100 pictures and videos of holidays when the kids were in the age of 5-10, project them on the wall.", "Yes, that one in the mountains is nice, where is that? Can you show me some more of that holiday?", "How about some videos taken around that era in and around the house?" "Did we have a dog back then?" "Ah yes, there is Bello, what a nice dog that was, when did he die?" [Star Trek computer voice: "last picture of Bello was may 5 2014".] No way I'm ever going to sort this mess manually. TBH, a simple import in Shotwell already works wonders, and I absolutely love the "For You" section in "Photos" on my iPhone, I can get lost in there for a long time, but that's just a bit too much tied to Apple for my taste though, I'll be archiving all those files at some point (to 2 local hdds and then rsync them off-site (aka "my parent's house")). Edit: Maybe, at some point, you can construct an interactive narrative about your life like done in The Orville in "Lasting Impressions" [0]. Why are you all so negative about the future people, you need more Star Trek (or The Orville) in your life ;) Nobody is going to get overwhelmed, we're creating a rich source of information about ourselves and the time we live in, which we will probably never really consume as a series of Photographs, that sounds pretty boring indeed, we can do better, show some creativity! [0]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7826096/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7826096/
- antiterra 5y agoI know it doesn’t say ‘first’ or ‘only’ to find the soul of 1950s Japan, but I sense the idea that Switzerland is the familiar and Japan is the exotic. Photography as an art was well established at the time within the borders of the country, and there’s much to discover, such as the work of Hiroshi Hamaya.
- bsrhng 5y agoYasujiro Ozu was making films since the 20s.
- JKCalhoun 5y agoI suspect though that a foreigner who does find the country exotic will choose subjects to photograph and photograph them in a way the "locals" would not. That can be both an interesting perspective for those native to the country as well as for the the rest of us.
- m0lecules 5y agodefinitely. although one of the hallmarks in a good photographer is the ability to find the exotic in the mundane. but now i'm curious how many foreign photographers we're missing out on.
- bopbeepboop 5y ago
- forgetfulness 5y agoOn that note, does anyone know of works coming from the other direction? Photographers from East Asia documenting the West before the Internet?
- jlawson 5y agoIt's not photography specifically, but one of Japan's most revered historical figures is Fukuzawa Yukichi. In the 19th century, he spent many years traveling through the West, learned English and Dutch, and wrote a lot of books in Japanese about his experiences. He "discovered" the West for Japan and brought knowledge back. They used that knowledge to help re-found the country after the Edo period ended; he's regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuzawa_Yukichi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuzawa_Yukichi
- 0xbadcafebee 5y ago‘I always go too far, too deep,’ wrote Bischof. ‘That is not journalistic. I realise that I am not a newspaper reporter. In my innermost soul I am still – and always will be – an artist’ Good! Modern journalism's focus on ethics and rigor over truth seems to confuse people and make them think they can't report the news. No matter what you report or how, there's no guarantee that the truth will out. Your own biases, the reader's biases, the editor's pen, the government's censors, and various incentives, all conspire to transmogrify the truth. Don't worry about whether you're a real journalist, as if it will make any difference. All you need to do is share stories and express yourself honestly. There's more truth in these artistic photos than there is in an entire Sunday edition newspaper.
- JKCalhoun 5y agoI would be surprised if the photo-journalists out there grouse very much about whether they are being ethical, truthful. I would imagine, like the photographer in the article, they all see themselves as artists and photographer first. It is surely what drew them into the gig.
- fnord77 5y agohe used a rolleiflex TLR medium format camera (the square images) and a leica IIIC 35mm. > Bischof died in a road accident in the Andes on 16 May 1954, only nine days before Magnum founder Robert Capa lost his life in Indochina.
- suction 5y agoNot to stray too far off-topic, but is anyone aware of any scientific studies on the exaggerated interest in Japan and Japanese culture among "nerds" and other social outcasts? By that I don't mean Cosplayers or Manga fans, but rather the "tech" version of nerddom - people who don't follow Manga, Anime, or Idols, but are fascinated with anything if it's related to Japan. I guess the most obvious reasons are the myth that "nerds" can find sex partners in Japan more easily than in their own culture, and the darker fascination of Western Neo-Nazis (like Breivik) with Japan's alleged racial purity and chauvinistic nationalism. Especially because a mass-murderer has openly stated his deed was "inspired" by Japanese culture, I wonder if the connection has ever been analysed scientifically.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago> I guess the most obvious reasons are the myth that "nerds" can find sex partners in Japan more easily than in their own culture I believe that is part of it, honestly. But I wouldn't present it exactly that way. I think instead that there are many American males that feel threatened by the assertive, independent American woman. Perhaps beginning with "women's lib" in the 1970's? Asian culture appears to paint a picture of a submissive female role that is non-threatening, in fact deferential to the male. Even in terms of appearances the stereotypical Asian female has long hair "befitting a woman" and wears traditional feminine clothing. But I think there of course is another kind of interest in Japanese culture that is not defined by sex roles, a fascination I have myself about Japan. I think it is other-worldly to this Westerner. Food is foreign but delicious. Society is structured in a way that keeps order. Strict social rules but flexibility toward foreigners who are unused to these rules (and apparently allowances for the behavior of drunks as well?). I think too many of us see modern Japan as a foil to our own failing societies as we head into an unknown future. Tokyo with public transportation and, as I said, strict social rules, has kept a mostly sane and functioning metropolis together. As we look to our own cities in the U.S. growing to Tokyo-like proportions we can hope that there is a way forward ... if we can only be more like Japan. Anyway, that is my take on it.
- forgetfulness 5y agoDiverting the discussion to the subject of the nerd identity is always on topic for Hacker News. I'd say there's several centuries worth of precedent on Western interest on Japanese art, history and culture. The US sent gunboats to force them to show the goods at one point, when they were unwilling to share them.
- ilamont 5y agoAnother European photographer working in postwar Japan was the late Italian academic and alpinist Fosco Maraini. His book Meeting with Japan (1960) is one of the greatest cultural analyses I've ever read. While his photos aren't as striking as TFA, the subjects and his writing capture the multiple transitions taking place in the country starting during the war (where he lived, including several years as a civilian POW) and during the 1950s. The English edition (translated from Italian) is out of print but worth purchasing if you can find a copy. Obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jun/15/guardianobituaries.obituaries https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jun/15/guardianobituar...
- negamax 5y agoIf a headline like "A Japanese wanderer who found the soul of France" seems strange to western folks then this headline is just a mirror of same absurdity.
- tomcam 5y agoPart of me agrees completely but the other part of me remembers reading Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America“ and feeling that he absolutely nailed it.
- bee_rider 5y agoAre you American? I think it makes sense to pay attention to other people's perspective on our own country, because we can get an outside perspective while also applying our firsthand knowledge to evaluate if they are talking out of their ass. In this case, the actual article is about a photographer. I suspect he didn't actually find the 'soul' of 1950's Japan, although I've never been to any Japan, but he did take some nice photos.
- 7402 5y agoI find neither of those headlines absurd nor strange, so by the rules of logic I guess the above statement is correct - although I disagree with the implication that there is something wrong with either one. I'm always fascinated by the insights a thoughtful and serious outside observer can bring to a locale or subject.
- pjc50 5y agoI would also like to see the photos of 1950s France by a Japanese photographer.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- freyir 5y agoIt doesn’t seem strange to me. Why would a Japanese artist searching for the soul of France not find it? A lot of art is made by outsiders, who see the distinctive elements that insides take for granted.