SOMETHING ELSE
Yutaka Takanashi
September 8th – November 3rd, 2012
| DE
Galerie Priska Pasquer is pleased to present the second exhibition in Germany to be devoted exclusively to the works of Japanese photographer Yutaka Takanashi (born 1935).
One of the founders of the legendary “Provoke” group that revolutionised Japanese photography at the end of the 1960s, Takanashi’s influence can still be felt in Japan and in the West to this day.
Only recently, the works of Yutaka Takanashi were on display at the “Yutaka Takanashi” solo show at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris. The Galerie Priska Pasquer exhibition features a selection of works from the Paris exhibition. Among the images on display are black-and-white photographs from the publication “Toshi-e” (Towards the City, 1974) and early colour photographs from the volume “Machi” (Town, 1977) in addition to works from the series “Shinjuku – Text of a City” from 1982-83.
The central theme of Yutaka Takanashi’s work is the restless shift in the Tokyo cityscape against the backdrop of the rapidly changing Japanese society.
In “Toshi-e”, Takanashi combines a multi-layered image of Tokyo and its inhabitants with glimpses of bleak, gloomy landscapes – generally denuded of people – on which the city and industry have taken their toll. While the urban photos still adhere to the subjective documentary photography approach, the landscape images are wholly in the radical “Provoke” style, which is characterised in Japan as “are, bure, boke” (“grainy, blurred and out of focus”).
With this raw, fleeting and expressive imagery, Takanashi and the other members of the “Provoke” group – which included, among others, Daido Moriyama – finally broke with the aesthetic of “reporting” photography and, in turn, with the notion that photography is capable of creating an authentic image of reality. At the same time, Takanashi’s “Toshi-e” creates a gloomy future vision of an industrial nation whose environment appears increasingly hostile to life and in which human beings are ultimately foreign bodies.
In “Toshi-e”, Takanashi combines a multi-layered image of Tokyo and its inhabitants with glimpses of bleak, gloomy landscapes – generally denuded of people – on which the city and industry have taken their toll. While the urban photos still adhere to the subjective documentary photography approach, the landscape images are wholly in the radical “Provoke” style, which is characterised in Japan as “are, bure, boke” (“grainy, blurred and out of focus”).
With this raw, fleeting and expressive imagery, Takanashi and the other members of the “Provoke” group – which included, among others, Daido Moriyama – finally broke with the aesthetic of “reporting” photography and, in turn, with the notion that photography is capable of creating an authentic image of reality. At the same time, Takanashi’s “Toshi-e” creates a gloomy future vision of an industrial nation whose environment appears increasingly hostile to life and in which human beings are ultimately foreign bodies.
Right after “Toshi-e”, Yutaka Takanashi changed his style of photography fundamentally. Instead of the moving 35mm camera, Takanashi switched to a large plate camera. In “Machi” (Town), Takanashi shows the vanishing pre-war Tokyo. In precise Cibachrome prints with warm colours, Takanashi describes the narrow suburban streets where old-fashioned wood and brick buildings are home to small shops and businesses.
The exhibition also shows works from the series “Shinjuku – Text of the City” (1982-83) – colour photographs of small bars and narrow streets in the Shinjuku district. In this series, the artist focuses his attention on the spatial elements of the establishments.
The change in photographic techniques is indicative of Takanashi’s rational use of the medium of photography. With his choice of camera, he fell in line with the changing realities in Japan’s capital. He used the 35mm camera in motion to record the constant flow of the city and, in the case of Toshi-e, he was a “hunter” seeking to capture his bleak vision of Japan in a series of photographs. The plate camera enabled him – in what he termed “scrap picker” mode – to create a precise document of what he saw and to make time stand still long enough to gaze on the last remnants of traditional life and architecture, doomed by the breathless pace of change in Tokyo and Japanese society.
“I have taken many pictures of the changing city at different times. I changed cameras. I changed the distance from the object. I changed my walking speed when taking pictures. My aim is not to make a vast pyramid of masterpieces but rather to walk on the ground making anonymous pictures. I will keep on walking further and further along this infinite line.” (Yutaka Takanashi)
“I have taken many pictures of the changing city at different times. I changed cameras. I changed the distance from the object. I changed my walking speed when taking pictures. My aim is not to make a vast pyramid of masterpieces but rather to walk on the ground making anonymous pictures. I will keep on walking further and further along this infinite line.” (Yutaka Takanashi)
Brief biography
Born in in Shirogane-cho, Ushigome-ku (now Shinjuku, Tokyo) in 1935, studied photography at Nihon University. First photographs published in Sankei Camera. Provided darkroom assistance for Osamu Yagi. 1959-61: Studied at Kuawasa Design School.
Employed as a photographer at Nippon Design Center; received several awards for his advertising photography. Undertook non-commercial photographic projects at the same time. 1968: Founded Provoke magazine together with Takuma Nakahira, Takahiko Okada and Koji Taki. 1974: First publication Toshi-e (Towards the City), which is seen as a masterpiece of the Provoke era. Works in black-and-white and in colour, imbued with a fascination for people and urban space, are included in further photo books such as Machi, Tokyo-jin 1978-1983 and Miyako no Kao. 1980: Assistant Professor, 1982-2000 Full Professor at Tokyo Zokei University of Art and Design.
Received many awards, including the Japan Photo Critics Association Award as “Newcomer” in 1964, the Grand Prix Youth Biennale in Paris in 1967, the Award of the Year from the Photographic Society of Japan in 1984 and 1993, and the Domon Ken Award in 2012. Yutaka Takanashi lives and works in Tokyo.
The works of Yutaka Takanashi have been shown in a variety of individual and group exhibitions. These include “Fifteen Photographers Today”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1974; “New Photography from Japan”, Kunsthaus Graz, 1976; “Photokina ‘78”, Cologne 1978; “Tokyo, City Perspective”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 1990; “Japanese Culture: the Fifty Postwar Years”, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo 1996; Retrospectives: “Yutaka Takanashi: Field Notes of Light”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 2009; “Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965-74” Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne 2010; “Tokyo-e”, Le Bal, Paris, 2011; “Yutaka Takanashi”, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris 2012.
Born in in Shirogane-cho, Ushigome-ku (now Shinjuku, Tokyo) in 1935, studied photography at Nihon University. First photographs published in Sankei Camera. Provided darkroom assistance for Osamu Yagi. 1959-61: Studied at Kuawasa Design School.
Employed as a photographer at Nippon Design Center; received several awards for his advertising photography. Undertook non-commercial photographic projects at the same time. 1968: Founded Provoke magazine together with Takuma Nakahira, Takahiko Okada and Koji Taki. 1974: First publication Toshi-e (Towards the City), which is seen as a masterpiece of the Provoke era. Works in black-and-white and in colour, imbued with a fascination for people and urban space, are included in further photo books such as Machi, Tokyo-jin 1978-1983 and Miyako no Kao. 1980: Assistant Professor, 1982-2000 Full Professor at Tokyo Zokei University of Art and Design.
Received many awards, including the Japan Photo Critics Association Award as “Newcomer” in 1964, the Grand Prix Youth Biennale in Paris in 1967, the Award of the Year from the Photographic Society of Japan in 1984 and 1993, and the Domon Ken Award in 2012. Yutaka Takanashi lives and works in Tokyo.
The works of Yutaka Takanashi have been shown in a variety of individual and group exhibitions. These include “Fifteen Photographers Today”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1974; “New Photography from Japan”, Kunsthaus Graz, 1976; “Photokina ‘78”, Cologne 1978; “Tokyo, City Perspective”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 1990; “Japanese Culture: the Fifty Postwar Years”, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo 1996; Retrospectives: “Yutaka Takanashi: Field Notes of Light”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 2009; “Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965-74” Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne 2010; “Tokyo-e”, Le Bal, Paris, 2011; “Yutaka Takanashi”, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris 2012.
Selected publications
– Toshi-e (Towards the City). Tokyo 1974
– Machi (Town). Tokyo 1977
– Toshi wa Yume Mizu (City doesn’t dream). Tokyo 1979
– Tokyo-jin 1979-1983 (Tokyoites 1978 – 1983). Tokyo 1983
– Miyako no Kao: Visages of a Metropolis. Tokyo (1989)
– Menmoku Yakujo: Jombutsushashin kurunikuru (Chronicle of Portrait Works), 1964-1989. Tokyo 1990
– Jinzo (Human Images). Tokyo 1979
– Hatsukuni: Pre-Landscape. Tokyo 1993
– Chimeiron: Genius Loci. Tokyo 2000
– Nostalgia. Tokyo
– Kakoi-machi (Fencing City). Tokyo 2007
– Yutaka Takanashi. Field Notes of Light. Tokyo 2009
– Yutaka Takanashi, Toshi-e, Books on Books #6, New York 2010
– Yutaka Takanashi – Photography 1965-1974, Berlin 2010
– In’. Tokyo 2011
– Yutaka Takanashi, Paris 2012
– Toshi-e (Towards the City). Tokyo 1974
– Machi (Town). Tokyo 1977
– Toshi wa Yume Mizu (City doesn’t dream). Tokyo 1979
– Tokyo-jin 1979-1983 (Tokyoites 1978 – 1983). Tokyo 1983
– Miyako no Kao: Visages of a Metropolis. Tokyo (1989)
– Menmoku Yakujo: Jombutsushashin kurunikuru (Chronicle of Portrait Works), 1964-1989. Tokyo 1990
– Jinzo (Human Images). Tokyo 1979
– Hatsukuni: Pre-Landscape. Tokyo 1993
– Chimeiron: Genius Loci. Tokyo 2000
– Nostalgia. Tokyo
– Kakoi-machi (Fencing City). Tokyo 2007
– Yutaka Takanashi. Field Notes of Light. Tokyo 2009
– Yutaka Takanashi, Toshi-e, Books on Books #6, New York 2010
– Yutaka Takanashi – Photography 1965-1974, Berlin 2010
– In’. Tokyo 2011
– Yutaka Takanashi, Paris 2012
| EN
Galerie Priska Pasquer is pleased to present the second exhibition in Germany to be devoted exclusively to the works of Japanese photographer Yutaka Takanashi (born 1935).
One of the founders of the legendary “Provoke” group that revolutionised Japanese photography at the end of the 1960s, Takanashi’s influence can still be felt in Japan and in the West to this day.
Only recently, the works of Yutaka Takanashi were on display at the “Yutaka Takanashi” solo show at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris. The Galerie Priska Pasquer exhibition features a selection of works from the Paris exhibition. Among the images on display are black-and-white photographs from the publication “Toshi-e” (Towards the City, 1974) and early colour photographs from the volume “Machi” (Town, 1977) in addition to works from the series “Shinjuku – Text of a City” from 1982-83.
The central theme of Yutaka Takanashi’s work is the restless shift in the Tokyo cityscape against the backdrop of the rapidly changing Japanese society.
In “Toshi-e”, Takanashi combines a multi-layered image of Tokyo and its inhabitants with glimpses of bleak, gloomy landscapes – generally denuded of people – on which the city and industry have taken their toll. While the urban photos still adhere to the subjective documentary photography approach, the landscape images are wholly in the radical “Provoke” style, which is characterised in Japan as “are, bure, boke” (“grainy, blurred and out of focus”).
With this raw, fleeting and expressive imagery, Takanashi and the other members of the “Provoke” group – which included, among others, Daido Moriyama – finally broke with the aesthetic of “reporting” photography and, in turn, with the notion that photography is capable of creating an authentic image of reality. At the same time, Takanashi’s “Toshi-e” creates a gloomy future vision of an industrial nation whose environment appears increasingly hostile to life and in which human beings are ultimately foreign bodies.
In “Toshi-e”, Takanashi combines a multi-layered image of Tokyo and its inhabitants with glimpses of bleak, gloomy landscapes – generally denuded of people – on which the city and industry have taken their toll. While the urban photos still adhere to the subjective documentary photography approach, the landscape images are wholly in the radical “Provoke” style, which is characterised in Japan as “are, bure, boke” (“grainy, blurred and out of focus”).
With this raw, fleeting and expressive imagery, Takanashi and the other members of the “Provoke” group – which included, among others, Daido Moriyama – finally broke with the aesthetic of “reporting” photography and, in turn, with the notion that photography is capable of creating an authentic image of reality. At the same time, Takanashi’s “Toshi-e” creates a gloomy future vision of an industrial nation whose environment appears increasingly hostile to life and in which human beings are ultimately foreign bodies.
Right after “Toshi-e”, Yutaka Takanashi changed his style of photography fundamentally. Instead of the moving 35mm camera, Takanashi switched to a large plate camera. In “Machi” (Town), Takanashi shows the vanishing pre-war Tokyo. In precise Cibachrome prints with warm colours, Takanashi describes the narrow suburban streets where old-fashioned wood and brick buildings are home to small shops and businesses.
The exhibition also shows works from the series “Shinjuku – Text of the City” (1982-83) – colour photographs of small bars and narrow streets in the Shinjuku district. In this series, the artist focuses his attention on the spatial elements of the establishments.
The change in photographic techniques is indicative of Takanashi’s rational use of the medium of photography. With his choice of camera, he fell in line with the changing realities in Japan’s capital. He used the 35mm camera in motion to record the constant flow of the city and, in the case of Toshi-e, he was a “hunter” seeking to capture his bleak vision of Japan in a series of photographs. The plate camera enabled him – in what he termed “scrap picker” mode – to create a precise document of what he saw and to make time stand still long enough to gaze on the last remnants of traditional life and architecture, doomed by the breathless pace of change in Tokyo and Japanese society.
“I have taken many pictures of the changing city at different times. I changed cameras. I changed the distance from the object. I changed my walking speed when taking pictures. My aim is not to make a vast pyramid of masterpieces but rather to walk on the ground making anonymous pictures. I will keep on walking further and further along this infinite line.” (Yutaka Takanashi)
“I have taken many pictures of the changing city at different times. I changed cameras. I changed the distance from the object. I changed my walking speed when taking pictures. My aim is not to make a vast pyramid of masterpieces but rather to walk on the ground making anonymous pictures. I will keep on walking further and further along this infinite line.” (Yutaka Takanashi)
Brief biography
Born in in Shirogane-cho, Ushigome-ku (now Shinjuku, Tokyo) in 1935, studied photography at Nihon University. First photographs published in Sankei Camera. Provided darkroom assistance for Osamu Yagi. 1959-61: Studied at Kuawasa Design School.
Employed as a photographer at Nippon Design Center; received several awards for his advertising photography. Undertook non-commercial photographic projects at the same time. 1968: Founded Provoke magazine together with Takuma Nakahira, Takahiko Okada and Koji Taki. 1974: First publication Toshi-e (Towards the City), which is seen as a masterpiece of the Provoke era. Works in black-and-white and in colour, imbued with a fascination for people and urban space, are included in further photo books such as Machi, Tokyo-jin 1978-1983 and Miyako no Kao. 1980: Assistant Professor, 1982-2000 Full Professor at Tokyo Zokei University of Art and Design.
Received many awards, including the Japan Photo Critics Association Award as “Newcomer” in 1964, the Grand Prix Youth Biennale in Paris in 1967, the Award of the Year from the Photographic Society of Japan in 1984 and 1993, and the Domon Ken Award in 2012. Yutaka Takanashi lives and works in Tokyo.
The works of Yutaka Takanashi have been shown in a variety of individual and group exhibitions. These include “Fifteen Photographers Today”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1974; “New Photography from Japan”, Kunsthaus Graz, 1976; “Photokina ‘78”, Cologne 1978; “Tokyo, City Perspective”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 1990; “Japanese Culture: the Fifty Postwar Years”, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo 1996; Retrospectives: “Yutaka Takanashi: Field Notes of Light”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 2009; “Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965-74” Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne 2010; “Tokyo-e”, Le Bal, Paris, 2011; “Yutaka Takanashi”, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris 2012.
Born in in Shirogane-cho, Ushigome-ku (now Shinjuku, Tokyo) in 1935, studied photography at Nihon University. First photographs published in Sankei Camera. Provided darkroom assistance for Osamu Yagi. 1959-61: Studied at Kuawasa Design School.
Employed as a photographer at Nippon Design Center; received several awards for his advertising photography. Undertook non-commercial photographic projects at the same time. 1968: Founded Provoke magazine together with Takuma Nakahira, Takahiko Okada and Koji Taki. 1974: First publication Toshi-e (Towards the City), which is seen as a masterpiece of the Provoke era. Works in black-and-white and in colour, imbued with a fascination for people and urban space, are included in further photo books such as Machi, Tokyo-jin 1978-1983 and Miyako no Kao. 1980: Assistant Professor, 1982-2000 Full Professor at Tokyo Zokei University of Art and Design.
Received many awards, including the Japan Photo Critics Association Award as “Newcomer” in 1964, the Grand Prix Youth Biennale in Paris in 1967, the Award of the Year from the Photographic Society of Japan in 1984 and 1993, and the Domon Ken Award in 2012. Yutaka Takanashi lives and works in Tokyo.
The works of Yutaka Takanashi have been shown in a variety of individual and group exhibitions. These include “Fifteen Photographers Today”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 1974; “New Photography from Japan”, Kunsthaus Graz, 1976; “Photokina ‘78”, Cologne 1978; “Tokyo, City Perspective”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 1990; “Japanese Culture: the Fifty Postwar Years”, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo 1996; Retrospectives: “Yutaka Takanashi: Field Notes of Light”, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 2009; “Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965-74” Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne 2010; “Tokyo-e”, Le Bal, Paris, 2011; “Yutaka Takanashi”, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris 2012.
Selected publications
– Toshi-e (Towards the City). Tokyo 1974
– Machi (Town). Tokyo 1977
– Toshi wa Yume Mizu (City doesn’t dream). Tokyo 1979
– Tokyo-jin 1979-1983 (Tokyoites 1978 – 1983). Tokyo 1983
– Miyako no Kao: Visages of a Metropolis. Tokyo (1989)
– Menmoku Yakujo: Jombutsushashin kurunikuru (Chronicle of Portrait Works), 1964-1989. Tokyo 1990
– Jinzo (Human Images). Tokyo 1979
– Hatsukuni: Pre-Landscape. Tokyo 1993
– Chimeiron: Genius Loci. Tokyo 2000
– Nostalgia. Tokyo
– Kakoi-machi (Fencing City). Tokyo 2007
– Yutaka Takanashi. Field Notes of Light. Tokyo 2009
– Yutaka Takanashi, Toshi-e, Books on Books #6, New York 2010
– Yutaka Takanashi – Photography 1965-1974, Berlin 2010
– In’. Tokyo 2011
– Yutaka Takanashi, Paris 2012
– Toshi-e (Towards the City). Tokyo 1974
– Machi (Town). Tokyo 1977
– Toshi wa Yume Mizu (City doesn’t dream). Tokyo 1979
– Tokyo-jin 1979-1983 (Tokyoites 1978 – 1983). Tokyo 1983
– Miyako no Kao: Visages of a Metropolis. Tokyo (1989)
– Menmoku Yakujo: Jombutsushashin kurunikuru (Chronicle of Portrait Works), 1964-1989. Tokyo 1990
– Jinzo (Human Images). Tokyo 1979
– Hatsukuni: Pre-Landscape. Tokyo 1993
– Chimeiron: Genius Loci. Tokyo 2000
– Nostalgia. Tokyo
– Kakoi-machi (Fencing City). Tokyo 2007
– Yutaka Takanashi. Field Notes of Light. Tokyo 2009
– Yutaka Takanashi, Toshi-e, Books on Books #6, New York 2010
– Yutaka Takanashi – Photography 1965-1974, Berlin 2010
– In’. Tokyo 2011
– Yutaka Takanashi, Paris 2012
