Photography as an art form is a mild fascination for me but only when I get a chance to view it at an exhibition, let alone as something I want to try in my spare time.
When I was at medical school, there was a photography exhibition of controversial works by Araki Nobuyoshi[1] (荒木 経惟) held at the Hatton Gallery[2]. His work was a mélange of Japanese women in yukatas, some in bondage (きんばくび), with exposed genitalia and, err… crushed watermelons. Talk about provocative.
A few years later, I tried, albeit failing miserably, taking the typical shots of trees, water and rocks in an attempt to create some sort of a semblance to ‘art’, and this was on film which was possibly one of the reason that experiment ended with that roll of 36 there and then. A colleague at work, whose partner was a fine artist, had commented that she didn’t ‘get’ photography as an art medium. “That photo of a tree is that of a tree. And the point is…?”
Now, with the advent of digital photography, any person with a camera can now go “waste film” to pursue some sort of an artistic venture, but at the end of the day, I feel that real photography requires guts[3]. Not how I do it – with lots of tangkap curi shots. Cluuuck cluck cluck cluck. I guess the in-between is getting a telephoto lens, but looking like a stalker much lately eh?
Murg was in Tokyo recently and he brought to my attention the existence of a chap called Moriyama Daido (森山 大道), who is one of most respected photographers in Japan previously from the Provoke movement in the 1960’s. It was after watching this short video of Daido that his works further piqued my interest.
Feeling inspired, I walked 10 kilometres in the city last weekend taking 200+ shots with the point-and-shoot which I curated in two flickr sets here and here. All the shots were one-offs, and I tried not to stand around checking out what I actually took on the camera’s rear display. After the exercise, I reviewed the shots on Photoshop and chose the ones I liked, monochroming every thing. Not even 0.1% of anything remotely Daido-esque there, but I felt at that moment that I wanted to go out again and take some more. Also, it is important to try to be inspired and not merely imitate. This will take time.
There is an exhibition that runs until mid-January of next year at the Tate Modern in London of both Daido and another chap named William Klein which I am going to see this Saturday. And for the first time in ages, I feel somewhat excited. Genuinely, I must say and not in a seni berat mengusap dagu kind of way. I do hope the exhibit is of a decent size or I will cekik the curator! Heh.
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[1]If you are an avid reader of Murakami Haruki’s work, Araki’s work is seen on the covers of a few of the paperback titles, like this UK print of After Dark.
[2]So controversial it was that the Malaysian Society had to decide on an alternative venue for the dining component of the Malaysian Cultural Evening that year.
[3]An amateur photographer I admire for her work since the days of Fotopages recalled a harrowing experience after taking a photo of a leather-clad punk holding a shop’s signage in Camden. Now, that whole experience in itself – that is art. In my opinion, lah.
