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every stroller can change the world.

Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.12

Dec. 7, 2013—Jan. 26, 2014

• Dec. 7, 2013—Jan. 26, 2014
• Closed Monday(if Monday is a national holiday or a substitute holiday, it is the next day) from December 29,2013 to January 1,2014.
• Admission：Adults ￥700／College Students ￥600／High School and Junior High School Students,Over 65 ￥500

The Metropolitan Museum of Photography undertakes various activities aimed at encouraging a spirit of creativity to explore the possibilities of photography and imagery, discovering photographers who possess promise for the future and providing a venue for new creative undertaking. Central to these activities is the "Contemporary Japanese Photography" exhibition, which is held annually with a different theme each time. For this exhibition, the twelfth of the series, the theme is "the street." The focus is on the place we know as "on the street," a place where we come into contact with the world. The theme is taken up by a group of contemporary artists in Japan exploring new perspectives and forms of creative expression in the current decade.
Photographers throughout the history of the medium have produced many outstanding images from "the street." This is place where we come face-to-face with reality, a place of unexpected encounters and discoveries, and it has enchanted many an artist. The artists showing their work in this exhibition do not just take photographs of the street. With the everyday environment we call "the street" as their point of departure, they consider today's world and explore their own position in it and then through their creative endeavors, attempt to change the worldview. By introducing contemporary artists via the key phrase "on the street," this exhibition attempts to give visual form to the atmosphere and the sensibilities of the world today.

 Itozaki Kimio                                                                                 

Born 1965 in Nagano Prefecture. In the wake of the 1980's boom in street observation studies, Itozaki advanced the concept of "impersonal art." Since the 1990s, he has been pursuing his 'Fotomo' project, in which he assembles photographs of buildings on the street into three-dimensional objects. He has since been developing series of works "on the street" becoming for him a consistent field of operation. He has won a number of awards including the 19th Higashikawa Awards Emerging Artist Award. The range of his activity is broad and includes a number of solo and group exhibitions and workshops, a blog, a magazine series and a collaboration with the artist Hikosaka Naoyoshi.

Itozaki Kimio 〈Nature on Roadside〉Hibiscus Caterpillar,
Fujisawa City, Sep. 10 2012, 2013 

Born 1963 in Hyogo Prefecture. Omori was awarded the 9th New Cosmos of Photography Award of Excellence in 1994 for "Good Trips, Bad Trips," a series documenting the rock band Mano Negra's tour of Central and South America. He thereafter had a number of solo exhibitions of his work in various places throughout the world. 'Subete ha hajimete okoru (Everything happens for the first time)', being shown in this exhibition, is a series of photographs taken while on a journey from Tokyo to Fukushima following the blossoming of the cherry trees in April 2011. The method he used in this series involved the interposing of clackers (two semi-transparent pink balls) between the camera and the landscape and deliberately capturing the resulting halation with the camera. Omori has been exhibiting works from this series throughout Fukushima since 2012.

Omori Katsumi Subete wa hajimete okoru,
Fukushima-shi, Fukushima 2011 

Born 1970 in Hyogo Prefecture. In 2002, Kajitani won the 25th Shinseiki Excellence in Photography Award. He exhibited in the 2008 group exhibition "Heavy Light - Recent Photography and Video from Japan" (International Center of Photography, New York). His 'JPEG' series consists of fragments of landscapes photographed in provincial cities around Japan - photographs of the signs, leaflets and decoration in the back streets and entertainment areas. The work shown at this exhibition is a selection of 110 photographs from this series taken between 2002 and 2013.

Kajitani Naoki 〈JPEG〉 five-star, 2002-13 

Born 1983 in Aichi Prefecture. Between 2008 and 2011, Tsuda produced and exhibited primarily video installations in Nagoya. Towards the end of 2011, still photography became his primary activity and his work sought to decipher modern society and urban spaces from his own unique perspective. The work 'site', shown in this exhibition, is the result of him travelling across Japan and asking random people "Where do you think I'd be able to pitch a tent," sleeping the night in the suggested place and then creating a photographic series that records the place at which he stayed. Also part of the exhibition is 'site by site', which is related to 'site', consisting of his new work 'True Sleeper', an account of his fieldwork conducted on the streets of Tokyo with the theme "a place to sleep."

Tsuda Takashi 〈SITE〉, 2011

Born 1982 in Saitama Prefecture. Since January 2011, Hayashi been publishing her levitation self-portrait diary 'Today's Levitation' on her website Yowa Yowa Camera Woman Diary. The series consists of photographs she takes of herself suspended in mid-air in places such as the back streets of residential areas, the platform of a train station and vacant land in downtown areas. The exhibit comprised of photographs taken on the streets throughout the city will introduce a variety of her levitation portraits in formats including large-scale banners, panoramic and stereoscopic views, and new work based on the concept of the triptych reminiscent of paintings on Catholic altarpieces.

Hayashi Natsumi Today's Levitation 05/13/2011, 2011

■Organized by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography,Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture,The Tokyo Shimbun
■Sponsored by Toppan Printing Co.,Ltd. Corporate Membership of Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
■Technical Supported by Canon Inc.

Events

Artist Talk (in Japanese only)

Dec. 21 (Sat) 13:00～14:30　Itozaki Kimio
Dec. 21 (Sat) 15:30～17:00　Tsuda Takashi
Jan. 11 (Sat) 13:00～14:30　Hayashi Natsumi
Jan. 11 (Sat) 15:30～17:00　Kajitani Naoki
Jan. 18 (Sat) 14:00～15:30　Omori Katsumi

Curator's lectures

Dec. 13 (Fri) 14:00～
Dec. 27 (Fri) 14:00～
Jan. 10 (Fri) 14:00～
Jan. 24 (Fri) 14:00～