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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Rose Blush


Dromilly Vale



























1. Perferated - SKREAM
2. Industry Prt 2 - PACIFIC BLUE
3. Another Girl - JACQUES GREENE
4. Landscapes - COOLY G
5. Your Love - KAVSRAVE
6. Daytron Romance - EKOPLEKZ
7. Neva Soft - MS. DYNAMITE
8. Turn Away - L.V.
9. Ocean Arrow - LEGOWELT
10. Running - JESSIE WARE
11. Told And Collapsed - RAIME
12. Tried For Your Love (Hudson Mohawke Remix) - KRYSTAL KLEAR
13. Ritual Union - LITTLE DRAGON
14. Festivus - NIGHTWAVE
15. 23 iSH - KYOKA
16. Albedo - G.H.
17. Blood Witness - REGIS
18. Arcadian - LINK

Friday, February 24, 2012

Gu Fan

























The polaroids of Gu Fan's Small View are like warm memories, melodies of quiet places, and moments of pure calm. The everyday captured in solitude, sunlight, and pastel. To me, these photos feel like the sounds of Morr Music/City Centre Offices and records like Donna Regina's A Quiet Week In The House brought to life. Almost like snapshots of song. One of the sweetest and most sincere books I have ever come across.

Small View consists of 30 titled photos printed in a 4" x 5.5" paperback. In addition to drawing and photography, Gu Fan makes toys, stationery, and TV commercials. He also runs Good Morning Light, a book publishing company based in Beijing, which released Small View in 2008.

You can find out more about Gu Fan and his work here.
Copies of Small View are still available from Good Morning Light.

Below are some questions I recently asked him about his work and Small View.





















THE PHOTOS IN SMALL VIEW ARE ALL RATHER HAZY AND DREAMY. THE SIZE OF THE BOOK IS PERFECT FOR THEM, MAKING IT ALMOST LIKE A SECRET DIARY. WHAT WAS YOUR INTENTION WITH THE BOOK?


I took some Polaroids in 2006~2007. Most of these photos are of my daily life and friends, some are shots of my drawings.


WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WORK AS A PHOTOGRAPHER?

Music is very important to me. It influences my photos and drawings. I love many types of music. Simply, Joy Division gave me a great impact in early years, and now I love many independent musicians: ISAN, The Books, Anne Laplantine, Sora, Guitar...






















WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE?


I prefer the familiar place and shooting these places.

DO YOU HAVE A CERTAIN CAMERA THAT YOU LIKE USING MOST?

I like my Olympus OM-1, Polaroid SX70, and Rolleiflex.

ARE THERE ANY CURRENT PROJECTS YOU ARE WORKING ON?

Yes, some personal projects are going on.














WHAT IS YOUR GOAL WITH YOUR BOOK IMPRINT, GOOD MORNING LIGHT?

Good Morning Light is a project with my girlfriend. It's from 2008. We publish some books of young and low-key artists' works according to our feelings. Good Morning Light is an attempt on our simple idea.

WHEN YOU RELEASE YOUR BOOKS, DO YOU HAVE A THEME IN MIND?

I rarely do my work in accordance with a fixed theme. There are a lot of random factors in life. I always pay more attention to the long-term of accumulation. While i took these Polaroids I never thought I would make a book for them some day. Small View took me very little time selecting and composing. I completed it very quickly.














HOW DO DAILY LIFE AND YOUR SURROUNDINGS PLAY A PART IN YOUR WORK?

They are a big influence to my work. My creations need accumulation of feelings and experience from daily life.


WHAT IS THE OVERALL FEELING OR EMOTION YOU HOPE TO INSTILL IN YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS?

I saw the dreams in the ordinary things. I was touched, and captured them.













All photos copyright Gu Fan, courtesy Good Morning Light.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

South London Boroughs


Kindred



















1. Download Sofist - MOUSE ON MARS
2. Sais - FLOATING POINTS
3. Ivy - ACTIVE CHILD
4. You Just Decided - SHINTARO SAKAMOTO
5. Don't Leave It To Me - MOZART'S SISTER
6. Harrier Attk - ACTRESS
7. Departure - GOTH-TRAD
8. Trample - INGA COPELAND
9. Cordialatron - CAUSTIC WINDOW
10. All Waters - PERFUME GENIUS
11. Avenue - EARN
12. Dust - FRANK OCEAN
13. Trials Of The Past - SBTRKT
14. So It Shall Be - HINTERMASS
15. Flux 5 - ROBERT TURMAN
16. Yura Yura Ugoku - YURA YURA TEIKOKU
17. Break4love - HYPE WILLIAMS

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Tomoyuki Sakaguchi





















Tomoyuki Sakaguchi's photo book, Home, is one of the warmest, quietest, and most lonely worlds imaginable. Taken at night around his hometown of Tama, a suburban district of Tokyo, these images are not at all what they might seem. The photos are entirely realistic by definition, yet the pure dream-states and magic they invoke give them a life all their own. This book is vivid and alive, luminous and wide-eyed, close to home, but yet so far away.

I found myself clicking through these images on his website often before purchasing the book, almost as some sort of meditation. Do yourself a favor and add this great book to your library; it also happens to be one of the best bedtime stories ever conceived.




Home was originally published in 2007 by Sokyu-Sha.
It was selected by Martin Parr in his widely-lauded Best Books of the Decade feature.
Copies of the book are still available directly from Tomoyuki through his website.
His latest project, Itasha, is available now as an eBook app from iTunes.

Below is a short interview I conducted with him recently about the book and his photography.






THE PHOTOS IN YOUR BOOK, HOME, ARE SO PEACEFUL AND CALM.. A NEIGHBORHOOD FAST ASLEEP. WHAT DREW YOU TO THESE IMAGES?

When I was a child, my hobby was astronomical observation on the rooftop of my apartment building. It was a very impressive and special time to view my town from above at midnight. Everybody was sleeping, only I was watching my town. I learned how to view and observe the night buildings and streets. Long since growing up, I still love night walks around my neighborhood.

WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WORK?

Of course I know many achievements of our predecessors, like New Topographics, New Color, etc. But for Home, mostly Japanese animation, Studio Ghibli, and others aimed at adults strongly affected me. These animations show me a very beautiful background image as a set and stage that based on real, familiar landscapes. They show me I don't have to go anyplace; I can take pictures right where I live.



WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE?

I love the shapes and structures of many objects and parts of residential areas. Power lines, telephone poles, guard rails, trees, brick walls, gutters, gate posts, asphalt, concrete, and especially middle class cars.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?

Now I am working on Itasha, a car project about Japanese anime's fun custom cars. These are more digitized images based on digital camera and Photoshop. I take many images for exposure and focus on 30-40 images for one picture. I recently published the e-book of these photos, and am planning on publishing a paper version soon.

I am also working on a project that takes many collected objects of the late Japanese photographer, Kiyoji Ōtsuji's room with my friend and teacher. We took a few thousand objects from nails, tools, cameras, records, model railroads, etc. There were also private postcards, pre-WW2 grade reports, and magazines. We photograph everything on a white background with simple strobe lighting.

I also do photo work for architecture and magazines, and am a part time teacher of digital photography at an art university.



DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE CAMERA THAT YOU LIKE USING MOST?

Now I use a Canon 5D MKII and Ebony 4x5 (for digital stitching). I don't use film anymore.

WHAT IS THE OVERALL FEELING OR EMOTION YOU HOPE TO CONVEY IN YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS?

I like a kind of photography that plays a role in recording and observing actual worlds. I try to use my photography to know the present real world of my time a little better.



All images copyright Tomoyuki Sakaguchi.

Heart Shaped


Today Is The Day


Meet Next Life

























1. My Favorite Girl - MEGAFORTRESS
2. Five Minutes Away - PREFUSE 73
3. Give Out - SHARON VAN ETTEN
4. Every Minute Of Every Hour - ILYAS AHMED
5. Köln - HARMONIC 313
6. Bright Shadows - TOKIMONSTA
7. Paradise Lost - RYUICHI SAKAMOTO
8. Swan - SLAVA
9. The Caliph's Tea Party (Broadcast & The Focus Group "DedNd" Remix) - GONJASUFI
10. R.S.D. - THE SABRES OF PARADISE
11. Caress - AKI ONDA
12. Promenade - STEPHAN MATHIEU
13. Paradise Of Replica - AFTER DINNER
14. Clement Danes - GOLDMUND
15. Inn Ohm The Lake - MORDANT MUSIC
16. Skin - GRIMES

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Kazuyoshi Usui


















Of all of the great photo books released last year, one of my very favorites is Kazuyoshi Usui's Showa 88. I fell in love with these photos at first glance. By using the history of the Showa Era with the direction given by classic Japanese black and white photographers as a starting point, Kazuyoshi picks up where they left off. The colors are remarkable- several shades I'm not sure I've ever even seen before. Made over the past ten years, the material in the book flows beautifully from page to page. Flowers, geishas, and quiet streets are some of the main images that pop up throughout. By utilizing an original and finely edited mix of color palettes, angles, and sentiments, the book unfolds in an unexpected yet entirely congruous way. Some of my favorites include a sky-high bird faded out by clouds, blurry cherry-blossoms, and the lonely photo of a man walking on an overpass, surrounded by hazy, blue-green light.



The book itself, published by Zen Foto Gallery, is equally lavish. Enclosed in a plain cardboard slipcase, the hardcover book is covered in iridescent pale pink satin, with a photo inlay on the cover.

Copies are available to order from Zen Foto Gallery in Tokyo.
For more information on Usui and his other projects, check out his site here.

With the assistance of Zen Foto's Mark Pearson, I was able to conduct the following interview with Usui about himself and his work.




ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOUR NEW BOOK IS YOUR USE OF THE COLOR PINK. ARE THERE CERTAIN COLORS OR THINGS YOU FIND YOURSELF NATURALLY DRAWN TO IN YOUR PHOTOS?

When I was young, I remember the appearance of long-forgotten photographs that emerged from an old drawer. The colour magenta was strong. This gives me the nostalgic feeling of the Showa era.

In this book, living is an important feeling. And death too. The colour pink gives me a strong feeling of living, in Japanese, "Ikiru".



WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Film, definitely. More than photographers, I am influenced by movies. In particular, Quentin Tarantino. What he does is to take things that already existed, and rearrange them. Hip-hop is the same. Taking great, old school music and rearranging it, out of respect.

I have done something similar, in photography. The 1960s in Japan were a golden era, with such greats as Hosoe Eikoh, Daido Moriyama and Araki. I am most intrigued by the photography of the 1960s. I ask myself what these greats would do if they were working afresh now. Showa 88 is not just about this, but the result is my interpretation of my influences and remixed for today.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE RECORDS?

Radio Bemba Sound System - Manu Chao, Ennio Morricone, Loaded - The Velvet Underground, Blue Lines - Massive Attack, Gorillaz - Gorillaz, Puertos de Alternativa - Agustin Pereyra Lucena, Kazemachi Roman - Happy End


WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE?


Of course, its the red light districts of Japan ("Akasen chitai").
Not the brothel cities of today. The "flower towns" ("hanamachi ") of the past.

My favourite is Tobita Shinchi (in Nishinari, Osaka). Why? It is here that the paradoxes of Japan are most apparent. The country has an "Entertainment Business Control Law" that limits operating hours to midnight, but relaxes it to 1 am on holidays. It's inconsistent and strange. Here gorgeous and cheap colours, good and bad taste are mixed perfectly.

ARE THERE ANY PROJECTS YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON?

I'm working on a black and white series. "Karimono" is the provisional title. An English equivalent might be "borrowed". It deals with the flesh, life. The cycle from birth to death.

WHAT CAMERAS DO YOU LIKE USING MOST?

I like my Pentax 6x7 and Rolleiflex Integral and recently got a Leica S2. I still need to get used to this one.




HOW DOES DAILY LIFE AND YOUR SURROUNDINGS PLAY A PART IN YOUR WORK?

There is some connection. I take some inspiration from daily life and the places around me, of course.

WHAT IS THE OVERALL FEELING OR EMOTION YOU HOPE TO CONVEY IN YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS?

The first is provocation or a bit of needle. And the feelings that this provocation will bring, which is the impulse to do something. I'm not necessarily just aiming to convey a feeling, but this is what I want to do in my photographs.I definitely want to have this balance or tension; the gorgeous and the cheap, humour and violence, life and death.



All images copyright Kazuyoshi Usui, courtesy Zen Foto Gallery.