r s Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Uh...I thought they look like 14-15 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Es Posted November 13, 2004 Author Share Posted November 13, 2004 Hey, friends! Great pix. And thanks for the kind and encouraging words! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abufletcher Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 Interesting how the only response I got to a couple of nice shots of a Japanese pilgrim and an elderly woman eating ice cream with her grandson (shot with an M6) was a tirade agains lame "snapshots" and feelble w/nw posts. On the other hand, I post a slightly blurry snap (done with a D70) of some young Asian school girls and watch the complements come in! I'm sorry if this spoils the mood but here in Japan I find myself constantly bombarded by Western sexual stereotypes about Asian Women -- and Japanese in particular. One of my students was only yesterday proposed to by a total stranger (from the US) while trying to practice English in an online Chat room. One of our returning exchange students learned the term "Yellow Cab" while studying in the US. It apparently implies that Japanese girls will give "anyone a ride." One particularly hot seller on eBay is Japanese school girl uniforms. Of course this is nothing new. All one has to do is read a few of the salubrious "occupation novels" written by American just after the war to find the same stereotypes. I agree with Alex, that there is a new vitality to Japanese youth culture and young women seem to be the primary movers -- and for this reason deserve to be photographed and the quickly changing culture documented. On the other hand, those who take these photos should be aware that viewers from the West (and other parts of the world) may simply see sexual objects.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edmo Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 <i>What do you see?</i> <p> A bunch of snapshots by old men of young chicks treated as sexual objects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edmo Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 (except for Jamie's shot) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 yep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Es Posted November 13, 2004 Author Share Posted November 13, 2004 Oh,oh! The thundering profundities are rolling in. Yep. Speak for yourselves, Edmo and Eric, you viejo verdes you. (Smile, giggle, giggle.) Donald, I sort of understand what you are talking about. I think the scene is a bit faster up there closer to Tokyo than down here in Kobe. The biggest problem in Japan isn't Western stereotypes but the Japanese themselves. Down here in Kansai we now have separate cars for women because of "chikan"--gropers. The other day a colleague told me that her daughter was followed by a middle-aged Japanese man in a business suit carrying a mirror which he used to look up women's dresses. Caught in the act he told the daughter, "This isn't what you think" (Chigai-masu) and ran away. Another problem is enjo kosai, "assisted dating" whereby older men pick up teenaged girls for you know what and pay them hard cash. I see a land where daddies are trying to protect their daughters from other daddies while at the same time trying to get at the other daddies daughters. These same daddies go on sex tours to South East Asia. A lot of Japanese still think AIDS is a foreigners' diseast. There are predictions of an AIDS pandemic blowing up here soon. That said, there is still considerable room to have a prolonged childhood in Japan. This is what I think I captured here. My subjects seemed to be cheerfully innocent. Donald, one thing that everyone missed is that your photo is of girls in high school uniforms. The very short skirts seem to be a new trend and one wonders if they are all of a regulation length. Not a few years ago school rules were hideously draconian and puritanical--a reaction against the political activism in the 60s and 70s. Much of that seems to have fallen away. If your subjects skirts are of regulation length one must wonder if their school isn't dominated by dirty old male teachers. What goes on in schools is another story. Rather importantly, they are not wearing the fashionable fat white socks you often see on school girls. Regulation minishirts? Hmmm. As I look at my primary subject sitting on the ledge of an open window looking out on the railroad tracks, oblivious of any danger, I see a symbol of an entire generation that has been overprotected and is clueless. Recently a young Japanese guy decided to backpack it to Iraq against all advice to not do it, got kidnapped and got his head cut off. Somehow he's typical. The youth culture of today reminds me of the flappers and jocks of the 1920s. Directless and hedonistic. Meanwhile, I see Koizumi doing his best to turn Japan into a warfare state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Es Posted November 13, 2004 Author Share Posted November 13, 2004 Oh yes, Donald, I really like that second photograph. What do I see? A prolonged childhood. Look at all the stuff those two have with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike dixon Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 <i>Donald, one thing that everyone missed is that your photo is of girls in high school uniforms.</i><P>Okay, let's have a show of hands. Did anyone think that the half-dozen or so teenage girls dressed identically in outfits that match one of the best-known cliches worldwide were wearing something other than school uniforms? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icuneko Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 <The biggest problem in Japan isn't Western stereotypes but the Japanese themselves.> Hmmm... Couldn't this could be said in a more indirect, traditionally respectful Japanese manner? Frankly, I'm a bit perplexed about why older males exhibit photos of much younger, miniskirted Japanese females and then comment about gropers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red_buckner Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 I agree that it's horrible to post pictures of Asian teenagers. Here's another shot we can discuss.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red_buckner Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 But if the teenagers are Western, it's okay.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grant_. Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 these are some of the worst pix ive seen on pnet....you really gotta get out more alex....challenge yourself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red_buckner Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 But, Grant, in shots like these, it's the quality of the butts, not the quality of the photography. As a member of the buttshots club on the Leica forum, you should know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grant_. Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 i was talking about alex's shots, but now that you mention it yours suck too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red_buckner Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 I wish Alex had included some butt shots; but besides that, the shots are charming. And as for my shots: is it the butts or the scans that you dislike? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike dixon Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 I wish Robert Byrd would get a real life instead of desperately seeking attention on photo.net under different names. It was a tired game the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricM Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 I just see a lolita complex with an attempted distraction under the street photography genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_ Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 Creepy. Edmo, S. Linke, and Eric nailed it. www.citysnaps.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red_buckner Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 << wish Robert Byrd would get a real life instead of desperately seeking attention on photo.net under different names.>> hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Gettin' faster!<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_lu Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 some of this is offensively boring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
________1 Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 "Interesting how the only response I got to a couple of nice shots of a Japanese pilgrim and an elderly woman eating ice cream with her grandson..." I liked both of those shots, Donald. Sorry I didn't say so at the time. Would liked to have seen them larger than the 511 pix limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jorge Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 Hey, I like Alex' pics (blame it on my poor taste) ;-) I enjoyed "The Meeting" Alex. Not everyone of us can be Elliot Erwitt or HCB. Cut us some slack...<br><br><center><a href="http://www.jorgemtrevino.com/PAW/week_39.htm"><img src="http://www.jorgemtrevino.com/PAW/39.jpg"></a><br><i>High School truants</i></center> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rico_tudor Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 Alex, thanks for the interesting cultural report. Can either you or Donald explain the meaning of the V hand sign? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abufletcher Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 Rico, The V gesture is a speed test for street photographers. Even a D70 on autofocus was unable to beat them to the punch! Seriously, it is just a ubiquitous gesture that might be accompanied by the word "Peace" (pronounced "pee-suu") that women in particular display in photos. They do it as automatically as you or I (or anyone who grew up in a camera-saturated culture) smiles when a camera is pointed our way. Or you could think of it as the female version of those ridiculous "gang" poses so popular among male teens into hip-hop. Personally, I think these peace signs pretty much automatically wreck a photo. But it is really REALLY hard to get a photo of a high school aged girl here in Japan without this gesture. In fact, for my photo above of the two girls, I actually had to shoot a bunch of the corny "peace shots" before I could convince them to just go back to what they were going when I first noticed them and what I originally wanted to photograph them doing -- talking on a cell phone and working on make-up. One thing I will say in support of ALL the photos on this thread is that at least the photographers had the courage to approach the subjects closely enough to shoot with a normal or wide-angle lens (my second shot is with a 19mm equivalent lens on a Coolpix). This means close enough to actually become involved in real human interaction. There's nothing sadder than a guy with a long telephoto lens sneaking butt shots in public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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