Araki

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Uh, Doris, I would love to get in to the fray with you about Japan, but the moderators don't like it. For now, let's just say that Japan as perceived by the West, and the reality are worlds apart. A few of us over here are planning to blow it wide open with a careful expose of the "real" Japan, of ijime, discrimination, corruption, cowardice, and chaos. It's just a matter of time...give us a while...Japan is like a huge dysfunctional family that is begging to be examined..you have no idea, and all the whining people like you and others on this forum want to do trying to stick up for Japan makes not the smallest iota of difference..

[claude_batmanghelidj]

In fact Araki is the epitome of all that is wrong with Japanese manhood, I humbly venture to say.

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Japan's treasure is its women. I would love to hear about Japanese female photographers, but have no time for cretins like Araki.

[doris_chan]

"whining people like you"

 

Err, am I missing something? An awful lot of whining is coming from your direction.....

 

"Japan's treasure is its women"

 

Man, that's beautiful and profound. You could get a job writing inscriptions for greetings

cards. Next time, why not give us your insight into kids and puppies.

 

"I would love to hear about Japanese female photographers"

 

Why don't you point us in the direction of some? I'll give you a start - what do you think of

Hiromix?

[el_fang]

<i>"all that is wrong with Japanese manhood... Japan's treasure is its women..." - Claude Batmanghelidj</i>

<p>The only thing being "blown wide open" is that you're a racist, sexist pig. Which begs the question: What the heck are you doing over there in the first place?

[nesrani]

"In fact Araki is the epitome of all that is wrong with Japanese manhood, I humbly venture to say."

 

If this were true, then it would make him significant in itself. I'm not really familiar with his work, but what I've seen hasn't struck me as going much beyond the choice of controversial subject matter. Visually weak, imo. On the other hand, everyone likes looking at pictures of naked women.

 

But while we're on the subject of Bjork, a heads up: the first DVD of Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle is now available, "The Order" sequence from Cremaster 3. Recommended.

[paul t]

", I would love to get in to the fray with you about Japan, but the moderators

don't like it...." <p>

Convincing evidence the moderators don't get it all wrong, then.

[doris_chan]

The real tragedy for Japanese women is that they're such magnets for strange, Western,

misfit men.

[brambor]

Well thanks for the info. I checked out his work and some of it is interesting but not for my taste. I'm probably wrong but it feels sort of like Robert Mapplethorpe (sp) although I thought RM's work was technically better.

[bobtodrick]

I have to admit a bit of amazement. If some of the things said here about the Japanese and their current culture had been said instead of the current Bush administration this thread would be long gone.

[beatrice_flowers]

Why would anyone want to say such things about Bush anyway?

[robert_clark]

Claude, it sounds like you are going through a stage of culture shock - It's well documented: you tend to start to despise your host nation. It will pass and move on, so better not get too carried away or take it too seriously. At some point you will accept the cultural differences as just that, different.

[roger_hicks1]

Dear Claude,

 

You don't like Araki?

 

Not his problem (he can live without your approval, or mine, or that of any gaijin); not my problem (I am pretty much indifferent to his work); not even, really, your problem (why get excited about it?).

 

From the number of your posts it looks as though you're a bit under-employed at the moment. My excuses: first, I make a living writing about photography, second, I've got a bad cold and the net is a way of creating the illusion that I am working without actually having to engage my brain.

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Nowhereman]

>>> For now, let's just say that Japan as perceived by the West, and the reality are worlds

apart.<<<

 

Duh, no kidding.

 

>>>A few of us over here are planning to blow it wide open with a careful expose of the

"real" Japan, of ijime, discrimination, corruption, cowardice, and chaos.<<<

 

Gee, I can't wait. Japan is a complex society with many contradictions; it's been analyzed

and written about extensively both in terms of sociology and literature. Like other complex

socities -- and the world is full of them. Granted it's not the happiest society in the world.

But everything you mention has been writtten about, and the world is not waiting "for

some of you" to "blow it wide open." Ever read anything except photo.net?

 

--Mitch/Paris

[john sypal]

<p>"A few of us over here are planning to blow it wide open with a

careful expose of the "real" Japan, of ijime, discrimination,

corruption, cowardice, and chaos"</p>

 

I guess if that is what you see, then deal with it through one of

your many cameras... The Japan photos that I have seen in <a href=

"http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_id=262095">

your Japan presentation on photo.net</a> seem to me to be the exact

opposite to this statement: " For now, let's just say that Japan as

perceived by the West, and the reality are worlds apart." As they

consist of a picture of a bullet train, a giant buddha statue and a

geisha... as well as the standard "Harajuku goth girl" photos-

probably one of the easiset photos to make in Japan as a gaijin,

right after the kamakura buddha statue ones. I don't think that your

photos show really anything new about Japan, good or bad.</p>

 

<p>Whether they are just to get predictable reactions from other

photo.net members or not, you obviously have some strong opinions on

the country and culture that you are living in, and you ought to see

how you can channel those feelings into your work. Please post some

examples when you can.</p>

[claude_batmanghelidj]

I checked out your pics on your blog John. So you shoot those with a Leica on black and white, and then scan what, the negs or prints before putting them online? And your blog, do you pay for the space?

 

I could relate to the post about F4s etc. I used to actually be in the Airforce, I was maintenance for C-130s in West Germany. I liked the way the base looked when you got to work in the early morning and see the blue lights along the runway. The C-130s are basically these huge flying pigs, and they make the biggest racket. Zealous use of ear plugs is the only reason I am not completely deaf today!

 

When I first moved out here I was in Kanagawa, and there were always some kind of fighter jets roaring around overhead. Here in Harajuku, where I live, we get low flying helicopters, not sure what model, but you have the royal family and just about every other power centre here, so it could be anybody.

 

What brings you to Nippon?

 

I just want to end by commending you for taking so many pictures and putting them online, you really take your hobby seriouusly. I hardly shoot any film, but I will take your encouragement to heart, and shoot Japan, as I see it!

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Mitch,

 

So your average person, even well informed, in the States, knows that bullying is endemic in Japanese schools, or is aware of the awesome pressure to conform, or the fact that just about every woman has had at least one experience of being groped or molested on the subway at least once and maybe many times.

 

The woman that wrote the "Rape of Nanking," was killed last year. If not for her, would anyone even be aware of the huge extent of Japanese war crimes? Today, everyone knows about the holocaust, but almost no one knows Japan's wartime history, not in schools here where it is being systematically covered up by the right wing. Are any of you aware of the resurgence of fascist tendencies in Japan, teachers have been fired for telling their charges they do not need to stand for the new national anthem, the same tune that Japanese soldiers used as background music to march through China?

 

You know, you probably think it is no big deal that torture is official policy in the United States governemnt. Fine, if you want to be politically apathetic, that's your perogative, but that kind of apathy is being part of the problem, and not the solution.

 

What, because I live in Japan, I am supposed to shut up, eat my sushi, and go around saying "summimasen" all the time like some kind of freaking idiot with terrets syndrome? Give me a break.

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Oh, by the way Mitch, I was looking at that magazine, forgot to get the contact details, I will make sure to do it next time I am in the store. There is indeed a great set of shots by some guy with a Leica, Hamaguchi is the name, I believe. They were from London in 1982, Punks, lady Di, etc. It brought back memories, as I was a 17 year old punk lviing in london at the time! The guy is a great photographer.

[john sypal]

<p>>>What brings you to Nippon? </p>

 

<p>I'm one of those State University International Studies majors who spent a year at a Japanese University and came back to teach English (big suprise) at a jr. high. I like my job, the students and the teachers, and it is stable and pays well enough to let me work on my photography at my own pace. </p>

 

<p>>>I just want to end by commending you for taking so many pictures and putting them online, you really take your hobby seriouusly. I hardly shoot any film, but I will take your encouragement to heart, and shoot Japan, as I see it!</p>

 

<p>Cool. I don't post near as much as I shoot (the scans are pretty bad anyway) but I enjoy doing it and I am learning a lot.</p>

 

<p>I hope that you are able to put some new photos up sometime. If you shoot a lot of digital pictures it would be that much easier to get a photo blog up and going of your work. My webspace is thanks to a friend of mine, but I think you could get something free online- even one of those flicker accounts.</p>

 

<p>Just keep taking pictures... Thats all really any of us can do when it comes down to it. </p>

 

<p>By the way, concerning Araki, I'd suggest you take a look through some of his non-nude books sometime. He has several on Flowers, Children, even old people and a book full of pictures of salary men on the street. These are another side of his work that does not make it online that often.</p>

 

<p><a href="http://www.kenshukan.net/john">www.kenshukan.net/john</a></p>

[Nowhereman]

>>>So your average person, even well informed, in the States, knows that bullying is

endemic in Japanese schools, or is aware of the awesome pressure to conform, or the fact

that just about every woman has had at least one experience of being groped or molested

on the subway at least once and maybe many times.

 

...Are any of you aware of the

resurgence of fascist tendencies in Japan, teachers have been fired for telling their charges

they do not need to stand for the new national anthem, the same tune that Japanese

soldiers used as background music to march through China?<<<

 

The average person in the US do not know this, but all these things have been reported in

major US and European newspapers and magazines. Don't forget that the average US

person can't find Japan on a world map..and that most US highschool students have

absolutely no interest in anything overseas. Try not pledging allegience to the flag in a US

school...Facsism is a verfy strong word for the bulk of Japanse society.

 

--Mitch/Paris

[Nowhereman]

Claude:

 

As I posted in the other thread, I was able to contact Natural Glow by e-mail through their

website that someone posted; they replied that they don't have foreign subscriptions but

that their issues are available on the Japanese Amazon and Kunokunia websites.

 

--Mitch/Paris

[claude_batmanghelidj]

In many ways, I feel that Japan is more of a democratic society than the United States. They absorbed the lessons of MacArthur's occupation well. And, as one of my friends explained to me, there is actually a lot of resistance in Japan to the pull of the right. They definitely have not given in to those who wish to return Japan to the 1930s. Which is more than I can say for the US. Still Japan has not been subjected to a 911/burning of the Reichstag type event. However, the previous examples of Berlin and New York must surely be pointing the way to the would be fascists of Japan, who are chomping at the bit.

 

It's amazing just how easy it is to get people to throw their human rights in the fireplace, in exchange for some "protection." I fear a 911 type event in Japan may be not far off, it would be all that would be needed to throw the Japanese into a frenzy. Don't forget, in the great Tokyo earthquake of the 1920s, they rounded up foreigners, in effect blaming them for the fires that followed on from the earthquake and executed them by the score. This is an atavistic, essentially feudal village based society that had been dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era. It will not take much for Japans modernistic veneer to drop and show its true nature. The real honest to goodness heart and soul of Japan was on display for the whole world to see in the 1930s and the 1940s. They never really changed, in contrast to Germany, and until they do some serious soul searching, then the threat looms like the savage and bitter sword of Damocles, waiting to come swinging down.

[Nowhereman]

This discussion now has nothing to do with photography or even Leica. I'm sure you can

find a suitable forum on politics or international relations where people would be

interesting in the spouting of your wisdom on Japan. But it's inappropriate here, and is

tiresome to boot.

 

--Mitch/Paris

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Hey Buddy I Try Coming Home, Alland, in a good mood, but after reading your little comment, "I'm pissed!"

 

We don't take kindly to personal insults here in Harajuku. I expect to see you, Leica in hand at High Noon, on Saturday, at the main entrance to Yoyogi Park, where the skaters hang, ready for a shootout. Can you handle a Wild Coyote with a mean streak? Well, if not, you better start learning quickly, cause this is one mean coyote you rustled up!<div></div>

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Yes, Master Alland, I can sympathise with you, after all, I was brought up at Eaton, but you were eaten and brought up!