Every day, we see devastating news coming out of Ukraine, from social media and otherwise. Amid all this, one tweet stood out on my feed. The Twitter user: Hironori Kodama. The tweet shows a portrait of a young man in Ukraine with a quote that says, “I want to create an IT service and become CEO. I thought long and hard over the past two weeks, but I still haven’t changed my mind about what I want to do. I was listening to Iron Maiden right now -20 years old.” I saw one human being’s authentic voice, something prominent media outlets don’t seem to feature.  

Kodama currently takes photos of and talks to people in Ukraine and posts about the situation on Twitter, Instagram, and note. I asked him about the feelings that lie behind his documentation in the country.  

–Could you briefly explain the work you do daily?  

Hironori Kodama (Kodama): I used to work as a photojournalist for NHK, as I’ve always been interested in photography. Now I work as a freelance photographer and shoot things and people that catch my interest. I’m not too excited by so-called commercial photography. I recently started taking portraits and landscape photos along the National Route 4, which connects Nihonbashi to Aomori prefecture. Also, I documented the protests in Hong Kong from 2019 to 2020.  

–What made you want to shoot in Ukraine during the war?  

Kodama: As I mentioned, it had my interest. The news talks about the horrors happening on the frontlines in the country. The invaded areas are hellish. And such information is essential to save lives. It’s also crucial in terms of galvanizing the rest of the world. However, as long as the news industry is for-profit, people [in the industry] must weigh the value of each news story and select which ones to transmit. I can understand their situation as someone who worked in the TV industry. When the scope of information is so extensive, it can feel very distant at times. I have the desire to document the things I see and encounter through my perspective and lens. If anything, I embarrassingly don’t have a great cause, like having a firm sense of justice and saving the world with photography.  

–Your photos make it seem like the people are spending their days the same as usual. What’s the situation actually like there? 

Kodama: You can say the circumstances vary a lot from person to person. I can easily imagine that the refugees’ daily lives have changed drastically. I can’t make comparisons since I don’t know what the city was like before the invasion, but there’s a 10 pm curfew in place, and air-raid alarms go off constantly, requiring us to flee to a nearby shelter each time. It’s mentally draining for many people. Perhaps that’s why they try to live their lives calmly and regularly as much as possible.  

Of course, everyone has a life, regardless of whether or not war’s going on. The news doesn’t show that side, but I do because I’m interested in that.  

–Your social media tells me you’re in Lviv (a city in western Ukraine). Have you felt like you were in danger since you’ve been in Ukraine due to bombs and such?  

Kodama: In Ivano-Frankivsk, the city I was in before Lviv, I woke up to the intense sound of a missile attack at dawn. I can still feel and hear the sound today. Many people remain in Lviv despite the outskirts being attacked numerous times. The city center may seem calm on the surface, but the people here have been preparing for aerial bombings by covering cultural properties and vital facilities with steel sheets.  

–What is the news coverage of the war like over there, in terms of media like TV and newspapers? 

Kodama: Aside from the ongoing war, the local news also talks about how the world’s reacting to it. Without foreign aid, the situation here will become even worse. They’re asking for more support through resources and military aid.  

–Is the communications infrastructure still functioning?  

Kodama: For me, at least, that hasn’t been an issue in places I stayed at like Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk, as well as Lviv, where I’m staying now. I can use my phone with a Ukrainian SIM card without any problems. Regarding the efficiency of wifi, that depends on the hotels providing it. Like in Japan, when too many people use their phones, the signal gets weak. Some accommodations have many fleeing people using the internet, so the connection gets slower depending on the time.   

–Are there any issues related to the lack of food?  

Kodama: There was a shortage of long-lasting food items and canned food in supermarkets in Chernivtsi. Also, different parts of the country and neighboring countries send food to those in the frontlines and refugees, but I hear it’s not enough. I’ve frequently spotted food and resources from neighboring countries arriving whenever I interviewed people. But I’ve heard there’s a severe shortage of medical supplies. 

–-You take photos of many young people. Do you have any criteria regarding the things or people you shoot?  

Kodama: I take photos of people of all ages, not just young people, but the young tend to be more proficient in English. So, it’s easier to ask them about the current situation. I don’t necessarily have any criteria, but I talk to people I’d talk to when I’m in Japan. Also, many people approach and take photos of me.  

Because I conduct interviews on top of taking photos, I would sometimes ask an interpreter to translate from Ukrainian to English. I record the interview with a tape recorder and then shoot the subject.  

–What do you feel now that you’ve entered Ukraine and interacted with the people there? 

Kodama: I feel like I’m questioning how I faced the absurdity that is war in the past. I must ask myself how I’ve been facing the conflict in Syria and the prolonged Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Further, I believe I must be staunchly anti-war because Japan invaded different Asian countries in history. That feeling has amplified since I’ve been in Ukraine and talking to the people.  

–Many photos taken in war are tragic, but you shoot portraits. Is there a reason behind this choice?  

Kodama: Photos taken on the frontlines are imperative to convey the tragedy and reality of war. However, I don’t think we should show what’s happening through that medium alone. It’s okay for there to be various methods and perspectives. I came to Ukraine not as a photojournalist but as a photographer. I’m nothing compared to those taking photos of the frontlines, including media outlets in different countries. But there are limited places and areas I could shoot safely without any support. We scroll through any news and consume them only to forget about them thanks to the advancement of social media. For instance, in Japan, the military coup in Myanmar isn’t a topic of interest anymore. Same with Hong Kong and the oppression of Uyghurs. Humans are creatures that forget things. One researcher of international politics said that the more we study the history of humankind, the more we understand how we haven’t learned from history. I take portraits because the simpler something is, the more effective its message is. It stays in people’s hearts.  

During the protests in Hong Kong, I was interested in what protestors built to protect themselves and took photos of so many barricades. In a particular part of Ukraine, a neighborhood watch group permitted me to document Molotov cocktails, sandbags, and caltrop. But the police suspected that I was a spy and persuaded me to take photos of people in the city. I currently post portraits on social media, but I also document the city and rural areas. I hope to present them in the future through another medium. 

–Out of the people you took photos of in Ukraine, who left an impression on you? 

Kodama: A parent with a child who fled to Ivano-Frankivsk for their dear lives told me, “Because of the ongoing attacks, we don’t have a home or computer or anything. We don’t have the data of our precious photos, so could you take a photo of us and email it to me?” I met a 17-year-old girl who escaped from Zhytomyr at a skate park in Lviv, and I still remember how she said, “My skateboard is important to me because my mother bought it for me on my birthday two years ago. That’s why I brought it with me.” It’s probably the most valuable thing for her. She said she found the skate park on her own and came to have fun despite the ongoing war. 

Also, I met a man who fled from Kyiv, and he asked me, “I wonder to what extent people in Japan understand the invasion of Ukraine” in a worried voice. I couldn’t answer him.  

–What do you plan on doing next in Ukraine? 

Kodama: It does depend on the war, but I have no plans at all. Thanks to the advice of different people, I have many people supporting me, including funds for the work I do. I’m so grateful for that. I have some issues with accommodation, though. I hear there isn’t a lot of availability in apartments and hotels in Lviv because there are many refugees. I feel guilty for staying in this city when there are fleeing people who don’t have a place to stay, so I might move to a city with available rooms.  

Because I work on my own and don’t have security, it’s much too risky for me to shoot in a danger zone. I figure I’d continue working within the confines of safety.  

Hironori Kodama 
Born in 1983 in Hyogo prefecture. After working as the news program director at TV Asahi, Hironori Kodama joined NHK. He was also involved in making news programs and documentaries as a photojournalist. Kodama began working as a freelance photographer after he resigned. In 2019, he repeatedly traveled to Hong Kong for ten months since the outbreak of protests to take photos there. His publications include NEW CITY (2020), a photo book comprised of photos of the Hong Kong protests, and BLOCK CITY (2021), a photo book featuring barricades used in said protests (both published by KungFu Camera).
Twitter：@KungFu_camer
Instagram：@kodama.jp
https://note.com/hironorikodama/
Now accepting donations to support our activities
https://my-site-103239-103657.square.site

Photography Hironori Kodama
Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post Through the eyes of Hironori Kodama, the photographer documenting the reality of Ukraine appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

flowers (AKAAKA Art Publishing), a photo book by photographer/director Yoshiyuki Okuyama, was published this year. The collection of photos he took over the years in his late grandmother’s home, which he now uses as a studio, is a dialogue with her via flowers. Until recently, Okuyama had presented many photographic works using people as subjects, so why did he publish a photo book depicting flowers and living space? We conducted an email interview to find out. 

——How did you start taking photos for flowers? 

Yoshiyuki Okuyama (Okuyama): When I first met Megumi Shinozaki-san, who runs a flower shop called edenworks, she asked me to photograph unsold flowers before she had to throw them away. She wanted to preserve the flowers, which once bloomed beautifully but were decaying as living things do, by having me take memorial portraits. That resonated with me, so I began receiving one flower per week and photographing it in my studio. 

The studio I use now is the house my grandmother used to live in while she was alive. I remembered how she loved to arrange and display flowers. Once I also started placing and photographing flowers on the windowsill, I eventually felt like I was having a dialogue with my late grandmother by facing those flowers.  

When she was alive, we didn’t get the chance to talk to each other too much. You can say I’m still filled with regret whenever I press the shutter button today. The pretty sunset that illuminates her room feels oddly lonely, and I finally understand how she felt there. That’s why when I was photographing flowers, it was like having a dialogue with my grandmother. To take it a step further, I was photographing myself until that point, including my regret.  

The initial impetus for me to create the book was photographing my grandmother’s empty house after she passed away. I wanted to know what perspective she viewed the house from and what she felt as she spent her days, so I placed large and medium format cameras on a tripod to photograph from an angle close to hers.  

Then, I met Shinozaki-san. The structure of flowers is like a dialogue: it’s a mixture of my perspective of my grandmother through flowers and my grandmother’s perspective before and after her death, which I had already been photographing.  

——Did you shoot the flowers that Shinozaki-san handed you just as they were?  

Okuyama: Yes. Shinozaki-san had visited my studio a couple of times, so I entrusted her with selecting flowers. So, I just photographed the flowers she provided me.  

——How long did it take for you to photograph flowers? 

Okuyama: It took about three years, I think. 

——Are you planning on shooting flowers in the future? 

Okuyama: I currently don’t have plans on photographing them. Because [the medium of flowers] is a book, it’s important to hold exhibitions, get featured on different platforms to look at flowers from multiple angles, and allow the audience and me to transform it. With any piece, it’s not like it’s over once the book is complete; that’s the beginning.  

With flowers, I had an installation with edenworks at PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO a year before it became a book. With that as the starting point, I could inch closer to the essence of [flowers] if I try exhibiting it in various ways over a long time. 

A conversation with two viewpoints: “my grandmother’s perspective” and “my perspective” 

——You used many types of cameras for the book, such as a 110 camera for flowers, medium and large format cameras to shoot spaces like the kitchen, study, and bedroom, 35mm, and polaroids. I was struck by how the main subject, flowers, were blurry, as you used 110 film for them while the photos of the rooms were crisp. How did you distinguish which cameras to use? 

Okuyama: The theme of this photo book is “A dialogue with my late grandmother through the medium of flowers.” Generally speaking, it’s composed of two perspectives—my grandmother’s perspective and my perspective—going back and forth in a dialogue. 

As for my grandmother’s perspective, I mainly propped 4×5, medium format, 35mm, and polaroid cameras on a tripod to photograph the interior. The key detail was the position of the camera on the tripod. I distanced myself from the camera and used a remote shutter release without touching the shutter button, so the camera could act like my grandmother when she was alive or after she passed away. By doing so, I eliminated the act of photographing as myself as much as possible. What did I have to do to make the camera be and see things as my grandmother rather than me taking photos with a camera? I expressed my grandmother’s unstable field of vision—she had a stooped posture—by making the tripod unbalanced and positioned at a low angle. By purposefully not making the [lens] focused, I recreated her weak vision. She was found lying on the floor when she passed away, so I photographed the view she must’ve seen. I dedicated myself to various techniques so the reader could also feel my grandmother’s perspective. I used comparably big equipment, so it could be separate from my physicality as much as possible. It made the camera exist as an independent thing.  

On the contrary, to take photos of my grandmother via flowers from my perspective, I used equipment that was as small and light as possible and a camera that highly embodied [me]. To put it simply: a camera that’s like an eye and has no presence. Then, I coincidentally found a 110 camera my grandfather had used in the closet of [my grandmother’s] Japanese-style room. It’s way smaller than a 35mm camera. It’s so small it fits in the palm of your hand. Also, the fact that it belonged to the house was a deciding factor, as it felt natural and unforced.  

More than the texture of the complete product, I chose the equipment according to the physicality [of the camera] when photographing things. 

——You published your book with the title flowers, but did you always want to name it that?  

Okuyama: This applies to any piece, but I rarely [take photos] with the goal of publishing a photo book. I only compile them into a book when I accumulate photos that make me think, “By publishing this series as a photo book, there’s a possibility the reader’s and my interpretation could change a lot later on.” Meaning, by cementing [the photos] as a book, people could draw a temporary conclusion from it. In contrast to their particular response at the time, when people look back on said book in the future, they’ll have new reflections on it. That in itself is the beginning of the piece. It’s the first step towards figuring out the essence of what the photos are conveying.  

Personally, it feels like I’m making a time capsule when I make books. Once you make it, you can’t change the compiled photos, composition, design, or anything else. That’s why it makes you feel the passing of time and realize some things. Regardless of the genre, the crux is how much you can make the audience notice things in your work. 

——Kaoru Kasai-san and Yuuki Adachi-san did the design for flowers. You previously worked with Kasai-san on As the Call, So the Echo. Why did you decide to work with him again? 

Okuyama: Whenever I look at Kasai-san’s design, it always reminds me of an artisan with dirt on his hands. His bare feet are touching the ground, so to speak. [His work is] like a living thing, warm temperature, smelling the wind, listening to the sound of the stream. It’s as though this land we cherish is expanding in the background. I feel a warm kindness [from his work].  

Previously, Masayoshi Nakajo-san wrote about Kasai-san, and there was a line that I related to deeply: “[He] unearths kindness, a quality that humans tend to forget, once more. Though what he was able to do with this theme comes from his character, the joy it brings is ours.”  

For both photobooks, As the Call, So the Echo and flowers, I wanted to make a simple and honest book with that soft kindness at the core, which is why I approached Kasai-san. 

——What did your grandmother mean to you? 

Okuyama: For me, she was a symbol of kindness.  

——Who do you want flowers to be seen by? 

Okuyama: I wanted my grandmother to see it. 

From how to take photos to what to take photos of 

——This is slightly off-topic but has your relationship with taking photos changed at all because of the pandemic? 

Okuyama: I don’t feel like my attitude towards photography as a whole has changed due to the pandemic.  

However, there are things I can only shoot post-covid. One of the things I’m currently working on is to observe and photograph Tokyo post-covid.  

——It’s been a decade since you won the Excellence Award for Girl in the 34th New Cosmos of Photography competition in 2011. What has and hasn’t changed regarding your way of thinking as a photographer? 

Okuyama: A significant change is how my interest has shifted from the act of photographing to themes, subjects, and coming face to face with external elements. When I started out ten years ago, I would pursue technical photography skills and go through trial and error every day. But I began spending more time thinking about what I want to take photos of instead of how I want to take them. Of course, before I can think about what I want to photograph, it’s a given that I have to think about how to do it. But the [amount of] time for that has decreased. I barely get started by [considering] how I want to photograph.  

What probably hasn’t changed is my sincere attitude towards creating things.  

——Is there anything you have in the back of your mind when you shoot? 

Okuyama: My state of mind changes depending on the time and place, so it’s generally hard to say. But I can say I always work on something with honesty. 

——Lastly, you’re working more and more as a director, including directing for commercials. Is there anything different for you between creating moving images and still images? 

Okuyama: In my case, when I make both films and photos, I’m making a production, so there isn’t a big difference in how I view them. But teamwork is certainly more imperative when filming because there are more people involved. I can’t do anything alone. Communication between the staff, cast, and everyone involved directly informs the finished product. Of course, communication is important in photography too. But ultimately, it feels like I’m doing that all on my own. On the other hand, with filming, everyone’s part of a team from start to finish. From preparing, filming, to the finishing touches, every word I say to everyone becomes part of a production, so I work with a sense of nervousness.  

Yoshiyuki Okuyama 
Director and photographer. Born in 1991 in Tokyo. In 2011, Okuyama received the Excellence Award for his photo book titled Girl by 34th New Cosmos of Photography. Then, he received the Photography Award for the 47th Kodansha Publishing Culture Awards in 2016 for BACON ICE CREAM. Okuyama’s noted photo books include flowers, As the Call, So the Echo, The Good Side, The Town You Live In, POCARI SWEAT, Los Angeles / San Francisco, and so on. Okuyama’s celebrated exhibitions include BACON ICE CREAM (PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, 2016), The Town You Live In (Omotesando Hills Space O, 2017), As the Call, So the Echo (Gallery916, 2017), White Light (CANON GALLERY S, 2019), and so forth. Furthermore, he creates TV commercials and music videos as a director. A Taiwanese edition of BACON ICE CREAM was published this summer by Taiwanese publisher Uni Books. 
https://y-okuyama.com
Twitter：@okuyama_333
Instagram：@yoshiyukiokuyama

■flowers 
AKAAKA Art Publishing
¥ 5,000＋tax
Book Design：Kaoru Kasai,Yuuki Adachi
Size： H261mm × W216mm
Page：152 pages
Binding：Cloth Hardcover
http://www.akaaka.com/publishing/flowers.html

Translation Lena Grace Suda

The post Photographer/director Yoshiyuki Okuyama’s dialogue with his late grandmother in flowers appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

When I could visit an art museum at last, the first reservation I made was at Photography Museum Foam—the same venue that held Alec Soth’s exhibition, which I covered in the second installment of this series. Located in the World Heritage Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht, Foam is an ambitious museum with an entrepreneurial spirit and economic independence from the government. From the basement to the third floor, it simultaneously holds different exhibitions on each of its four floors. Foam is well-known as one of the best art museums to enjoy the latest art of our times.

There are exhibitions open for two 2020 awards right now. These two awards, the Foam Paul Huf Award and Foam Talent, are both organized annually by Foam. Because these awards are open to artists from all over the world, rather than just from the Netherlands or Europe, they always attract international attention. Both awards’ exhibitions opened at the end of last year, so the six-month exhibition period happened to completely overlap with the long-term pandemic lockdown and the resulting museum closures. Thus, the exhibitions were not open to the public for the majority of the scheduled period. However, Foam made the call to extend both exhibitions, so they should be on display for the entire month of June as the museum reopens.

In this report, I’d like to focus on the exhibition by the winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award.

Spanish-born artist Laia Abril’s (1986-) solo exhibition, On Rape: A History of Misogyny, Chapter Two, won the 2020 14^th Foam Paul Huf Award. This award, which Foam has organized annually since 2007, aims to support young photographers; the winner receives a cash prize of 20,000 euros and a solo exhibition at Foam. Past recipients of the award include world-renowned photographers such as Pieter Hugo and Alex Prager, as well as Japanese artists Momo Okabe and Daisuke Yokota.

As the title suggests, Abril’s work is part of a long-term project that attempts to visualize the historical marginalization of women from the perspective of women. I’d like to touch lightly on Chapter One, On Abortion (2016). This work focuses on the issue of abortion, which is still not allowed by legal or religious rules in many countries, and visualizes the resulting danger and damage to women when abortions are not performed safely or freely. The exhibition was shown in the 2016 Les Rencontres d’Arles in the South of France and subsequently toured through a total of 10 cities, including New York, Chicago, Helsinki, Paris, and London. Through this work, Abril had already garnered international recognition, winning 2018 Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation PhotoBook of the Year, an international photography award. 

This exhibition, On Rape, which is the sequel to that work, is also inspired by social issues related to women. In 2018, a court in Spain ruled that five men who had raped an 18-year-old girl were guilty of sexual abuse rather than rape, and the men were later released. This event sparked the largest feminist demonstration in the country’s history, and Abril was one of many who was galvanized by this event.

Why must we tacitly accept perpetrators in order to preserve certain powers and social norms? In this exhibition, Abril looks back at the history of rape to find the answer to that question.

The tragic stories told by the survivors’ clothing

The first room features eight large prints, nearly two meters tall, all of which are photos of clothing. Upon reading the text above the photos, I realized that these clothes had belonged to female rape victims.

A young girl in Colombia who was sexually abused by a teacher at her kindergarten. A woman who was disowned by her pastor father at age 16 for being a lesbian, and while homeless, was raped, impregnated, and experienced a miscarriage. A transgender woman at an American prison who was raped at knifepoint in her cell by a prison guard. A female member of the US military who was raped by her commander. This collection of photographs of women’s clothing silently reminds us that each horrifying confession is a real-life event. 

While looking at these photographs, I thought about the Hulu original drama, The Handmaid’s Tale. In a Sci-Fi world where the birth rate is abnormally low, the remaining fertile women are considered the property of a privileged class and forced to give birth on behalf of those who cannot conceive. In practice, this takes place through ritualized rape and strict monitoring of the women’s daily lives. The story is so tragic that it may seem like a dystopian tale, but Margaret Atwood, the author of the original story said, “I made nothing up.” When I learned that the story pieces together actual abuse experienced by women all over the world, I realized that the sexual abuse of women has historically been tolerated and not even properly discussed.

To return to the discussion of the exhibition: Although we cannot see the survivors’ pictures, each person’s clothing is instead presented in the form of a photograph, which allows each experience to transcend its frame and take on a certain collective feeling. The collection of various images creates a space in which it is unavoidable to confront the reality and reasons why women, regardless of race, environment, age, or occupation, are victims of rape or must fear the possibility of rape—all over the world, day and night, past and present.

A reflection on history from the perspective of women

The next room displays still-life photographs featuring various articles of evidence of rape’s historical and tacit acceptance around the world. The photos include the following: A historical sculpture showing how throughout history, women have always been treated as trophies in the wars waged by men. A rape kit from America, where one woman is sexually assaulted every 73 seconds, and yet, thousands of rape kits containing DNA evidence have gone missing. Libido-reducing drugs given to convicted sex offenders and pedophiles in exchange for reduced sentences. A chastity belt manufactured in the Middle Ages to prevent rape. On display alongside this collection of photographs were panels containing quotes by powerful men from all over the world who justified rape.

If you are a man, when you see this exhibition, with its collection of objects and testimonies that are evidence of inhumane acts against women throughout the world’s history, you may think it only represents worst-case scenarios. Perhaps these are just events that happened in a small fraction of the world, and you may feel the artist is being malicious by disparaging the historical achievements of these remarkable men.

However, this exhibition is solely made up of objects, testimonies, and explanations of the historical tragedies women have gone through. While Abril organized the exhibition, nothing in it could be considered her personal declaration. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, this exhibition aims to look back at the history of rape to explore the reasons why perpetrators of sexual violence have been tacitly accepted. In this respect, she has merely collected and arranged historical facts in a calm, objective manner.

Even the word “history” could be interpreted as “his story”—a man’s story. Regardless of whether this is the etymology behind the world, history has indeed been recorded from the perspective of men. One could say that Abril’s multipart series, A History of Misogyny, is a “herstory” that re-examines history from the perspective of women.

History and herstory. On top of that, I think we could start a new discourse by getting to know the history of people with marginalized gender identities (i.e. “theirstory”) who do not fit within the gender binary. It’s incredible that Abril won a prestigious photography award prize for boldly telling women’s stories—stories that have been shrouded in secrecy until now. I’d like keep watching her as she unravels “herstory.”

You can see the 3D tour page of this exhibition at Paris’s Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in 2020. Please take a look below if you’re interested:
https://embed.artland.com/shows/on-rape

■Laia Abril On Rape: A History of Misogyny, Chapter Two (The Netherlands)
November 6^th 2020 – June 27^th 2021
https://www.foam.org/museum/programme/laia-abril-on-rape-a-history-of-misogyny-chapter-two

Photography Tomo Kosuga
Translation Aya Apton

The post Photo exhibition report: Laia Abril reflects on history from the perspective of women appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.