Hokkaido – the ‘new’ or ‘northern territories’ – was largely uninhabited by Japanese until the late 17th century and was annexed by Japan becoming an official ‘region’ about 150 years ago. It is the second largest island in Japan, about two thirds the size of England, with a population of 5 million, and is just …
Leica rather missed the boat when digital came along so of course I’m talking about the best film Leica. And no, its not another “the M3 is the best camera ever made” review. But to begin, a bit of background.
My first ‘camera’ was a 4×5 I made with my father’s help, and a loaned lens from my uncle who worked at Taylor Hobson in Leicester, UK. The wooden box camera used glass plate negatives – remember those? Focusing was hit and miss, manually sliding the fat projector lens in and out until infinity seemed as good as it could get – then stopping down with a cardboard cut-out sleeve over the lens. I was a teenager and was making the camera for a single purpose – to photograph a comet which was easily visible stretching across the sky.
On the east side of Shinjuku station is an area of half a dozen narrow streets, the “Golden Gai” in the Kabukicho district, formerly the post-war black market area and later prostitution district, now just small run-down drinking bars. On the west side is “Omoide Yokocho” (memory lane), essentially a single alley barely wide enough for two people to pass each other, known colloquially as “piss alley”.
My photography is about people but often without people – stories in objects and surroundings about their lives and lifestyles.
Nagasaki (city) is a historically famous port. The only place in Japan to allow foreigners entry for trade (albeit to a small controlled island ‘Deshima’) for three centuries. The Portuguese brought new cuisine (‘Tempura’ – food in batter – and ‘Castella’ – a type of pound cake), the Spanish brought Christianity, but the Dutch and British were were more interested in making money so traded without religious connections.
My photography is about people but often without people – stories in objects and surroundings about their lives and lifestyles.
Japan probably conjures up many thoughts – crowds, temples (Buddhist) and shrines (Shinto), Shinkansen, mount Fuji, and more. City workers’, ‘salarymen’ in Japanese, lifestyles are centred around their employment, traditionally at the same company for their entire lives, with a wife and children at home. And make no mistake, Japan is a very traditional society still, with by far the majority of girls giving up their careers on getting married, staying at home, cooking, cleaning, bearing and looking after children. After work husbands continue ‘work’ with their colleagues in a favourite izakaya – the Japanese equivalent of a pub/restaurant in the UK.
