Skip to main content

_

Notes from Underground

  And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?---Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Even now, so many years later, all this is somehow a very evil memory. I have many evil memories now, but ... hadn’t I better end my “Notes” here? I believe I made a mistake in beginning to write them, anyway I have felt ashamed all the time I’ve been writing this story; so it’s hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment.  Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting; a novel needs a hero, and all the traits for an anti-hero are expressly gathered together here, and what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are...
Read more

Hope

To be human is to be a miracle of evolution conscious of its own miraculousness — a consciousness beautiful and bittersweet, for we have paid for it with a parallel awareness not only of our fundamental improbability but of our staggering fragility, of how physiologically precarious our survival is and how psychologically vulnerable our sanity. To make that awareness bearable, we have evolved a singular faculty that might just be the crowning miracle of our consciousness: hope.-- Erich Fromm


Labels

Shomei Tomatsu-The most influential Japanese photographer of the postwar era







Shōmei Tōmatsu (東松 照明, Tōmatsu Shōmei, January 16, 1930 – December 14, 2012) was a Japanese photographer.Born in Nagoya in 1930, Tōmatsu studied economics at Aichi University, graduating in 1954. While still a student, he had his photographs published by the major Japanese photography magazines. He entered Iwanami and worked on the series Iwanami Shashin Bunko. Two years later, he left in order to freelance. In 1959, Tōmatsu formed Vivo with Eikoh Hosoe and Ikkō Narahara. Two years later, his and Ken Domon's book Hiroshima–Nagasaki Document 1961, on the effects of the atomic bombs, was published to great acclaim. In 1972, he moved to Okinawa; in 1975, his prizewinning book of photographs of Okinawa, Pencil of the Sun (太陽の鉛筆, Taiyō no enpitsu) was published. Tōmatsu moved to Nagasaki in 1998. Tōmatsu died in Naha (Okinawa) on 14 December 2012 (although this was not publicly announced until January 2013










Shomei Tomatsu, from the series “No. 24”, 1967



The "Giant" of Postwar Japanese Photography

Shomei Tomatsu is widely considered the most influential figure in Japanese photography during the second half of the 20th century. His work fundamentally shifted the medium from objective photojournalism to a subjective, expressive "portrayal" of a nation struggling to reconcile its traditional soul with the trauma of defeat and the rapid Westernization of the postwar era.





Nagoya, 1953








 Seto, 1954





“Bottle Melted and Deformed by Atomic Bomb Heat, Radiation, and Fire, Nagasaki” (1961)





“Prostitute” (1957)


Artistic Evolution and Style

Tomatsu’s style is often described as "Are, Bure, Boke" (rough, blurred, and out-of-focus), though he mastered many forms, from high-contrast monochrome to vibrant color.

  • Subjective Documentary: Unlike the rigid "objective" reporting of previous generations, Tomatsu injected his own perspective and emotions into his frames.

  • Symbolic Metaphor: He frequently focused on isolated objects—a discarded bottle, a scarred face, a piece of chocolate—to represent larger national traumas.

  • The "Skin" Concept: He viewed the surface of objects and skin as a record of history, famously stating that he was interested in the "skin of the nation."




 Chewing Gum and Chocolate, Yokosuka, 1959. Photographer: Shomei Tomatsu/Marta






“Untitled (Yokosuka),” from the series “Chewing Gum and Chocolate” (1959)





“Hibakusha Tsuyo Kataoka, Nagasaki” (1961)





“Coca-cola, Tokyo” (1969)


11:02 Nagasaki (1966)

Perhaps his most profound work, this series was commissioned to document the long-term effects of the atomic bomb.

  • The Melted Bottle (1961): An iconic image of a beer bottle twisted into a biomorphic, grotesque shape by the heat of the blast. It became a universal symbol of nuclear devastation.

  • Hibakusha Portraits: Close-up, intimate portraits of survivors that emphasized their humanity and resilience rather than just their injuries.




Shomei Tomatsu, Blood & Roses 2, Tokyo 1969





Shomei Tomatsu, Untitled, from the series Chewing Gum and Chocolate, Hokkaido, 1959





“Untitled (Yokosuka),” from the series “Chewing Gum and Chocolate” (1966)


Chewing Gum and Chocolate (1960s)

This series examined the American occupation and the "Americanization" of Japanese culture.

  • Theme: The title represents the gifts given by GI soldiers to Japanese children.

  • Visual Narrative: Images of American military bases, jazz clubs, and street scenes in Yokosuka and Okinawa, capturing a mixture of fascination, repulsion, and cultural collision.




“Untitled,” from the series “Protest, Tokyo” (1969)





“Untitled,” from the series “Protest, Tokyo” (1969)


The Pencil of the Sun (1975)

A major shift in Tomatsu’s career, this book focused on Okinawa and Southeast Asia.

  • Transition to Color: Moving away from the gritty black-and-white of the 60s, he adopted a lush, saturated color palette to capture the spirit and light of the southern islands.

  • Cultural Preservation: He sought to document the "authentic" Japan he felt was disappearing from the mainland due to industrialization.




 “Boy and the Sea,” Tokyo, 1969



The Moriyama – Tomatsu: Tokyo exhibition was conceived by artists Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu – before the latter’s death in 2012 – as a way to celebrate their city around a first artistic collaboration.
From Wednesday, December 16, the MEP is proud to bring together more than 400 works from the 1950s to today, which we owe to two of the most influential and essential photographers of our time. In their way, each of them nurtured a real passion for the city of Tokyo, which they have been leading for decades. This double retrospective is the first devoted to Tomatsu in France and one of the most important around the work of Moriyama. It’s a tribute to Japanese photography and the world’s greatest metropolis


















Legacy and Influence

  • VIVO (1959–1961): Tomatsu co-founded the influential VIVO collective alongside Eikoh Hosoe and Kikuji Kawada, establishing the "self-managed" agency model for photographers.

  • Provoke Magazine: While not a core member, his raw, grainy aesthetic was the primary inspiration for the Provoke movement and photographers like Daido Moriyama and Takuma Nakahira.

  • Global Recognition: His 2004 retrospective, Skin of the Nation, toured major museums including SFMOMA and the Japan Society in New York, cementing his status as a global master.








Labels:

Popular Posts