There is much more I could say about Paris Photo, but much was the same as ever, or perhaps more so. At many gallery spaces it was very much a case of deja vu, and there were some images I welcomed as old friends, in particular a very nice Steichen gum platinum print and some fine dye transfers of artists studios by Evelyn Hofer. If one can’t own such beautiful objects it is at least nice to see them on a regular basis.
However there were other works I would be happy never to see again, and indeed some I would happily add to a bonfire or put back in the photographers rubbish bin from which some ‘vintage works’ do appear to have been ‘rescued.’ I think the gallery scene lacks any mechanism for dealers to admit to making mistakes – they just have to keep on putting out the work and hope that suckers will take the bait.
It was good to see some of the Japanese work, in particular some fine large prints by Daido Moriyama which made a nice comparision with work by William Klein it was shown alongside. It was disappointing not to see more work from Eikoh Hosoe, but there was a magnificient very large screen made from his picture of a Kamaitachi running across a rice paddy, a wide open and highly luminous patchwork landscape. This very large inkjet print made on silk paper was truly one of the most desirable objects in the show.
There is a lengthy illustrated essay by Mariko Takeuchi, guest curator of the “Spotlight on Japan” at the show on lensculture which attempts the kind of overview of Japanese photography that would be beyond me. However, there are a few things it fails to mention, for example what was possibly a vital influence on photography in Japan in the 20th century (it was listed on the very detailed history board in the exhibition) in 1931 when ‘Film und Foto‘ brought the modern photography world to tour Japan.
Also without a mention is one of my favourite Japanese photographers, Issei Suda (b1940), (you can see around 30 of his pictures – though not my favourite works at the site of the Portland USA Charles A Hartman gallery.) I was pleased to see pictuers by Suda both at both Galerie Priska Pasquer from Cologne and a particularly fine image with a tatooed torso, from Zeit-Foto Salon from Tokyo. Its a picture that’s hard to describeand I can’t find on the web, so here I’ll do something I don’t like to do and put my very bad snap, taken as an ‘aide-memoire’ and full of reflections, on line. (Incidentally everyone seems happy with people taking pictures of the pictures at the show – which comes as a little shock after some museum policies. )
One of four Issei Suda images on Zeit-Foto Salon Tokyo stand at Paris Photo
Another fine image on the same stand was a large print by Ihei Kimura (1901-74) one of a generation across the world whose creativity emerged with the Leica, and whose work desrves to be more widely known here.
Takeuchi does mention Kimura, and also another phtogorapher whose prints I liked, Tomoko Yoneda, whose black and white pictures seen through the spectacle lenses of the famous have for me a very Bauhaus feel. Another photographer who doesn’t get a look in is the only one of the more recent photographers from Japan who held any great interest for me, Nobuhiro Fukui, who I mentioned in an earlier post.
