'Provoke' was a movement and magazine in which three Japanese photographers published their images in the 1960's-70's. Most of the photography in the magazine was of a similar style, black and white, grainy and blurred. A lot of the images were snapshots of movement and action. One of the photographers who published their images in the second issue of this magazine is called Dadio Moriyama, who is most well known for his photograph named 'Stray dog' which was taken in 1971. He joined the provoke movement in 1969 and then his status grew and people began to really love his work as it was so trapping and intense, with a lot of movement and action, so much seemed to be going on.
D A I D O M O R I Y A M A
Daido Moriyama is a Japanese photographer who believes that the world is very erotic and sensual, that 'cities are enormous bodies of people's desires', and within these cities he can also find his own desires. He mainly does street photography as this does not make people feel uncomfortable due to the streets being so rushed and busy, most of the time people do not even realise they are having their picture taken. He works by travelling quickly, walking fast and capturing the things that he finds himself most drawn to, as if it is natural and he bases his work upon instinct and his own taste. He captures a lot of movement created by other people and himself. Moriyama believes that he does not have a real 'home', he may have a physical one but not a home that he is attached to mentally or emotionally - ' I am creating my own home by connecting pieces of images since I was a child.' He uses both film and digital cameras to capture with, he develops his own images and tries to use as many as possible, he questions why we throw some photos away or do not use them if they don't fit the general visual conventions of photography. I feel as if Moriyama defies those conventions and breaks the boundaries as he does not stick to the general rules and he just captures what he is most naturally drawn to. The blurriness of the movement within his images is not edited out, he doesn't discard a photo if it isn' in focus. I believe that he does not really care about the conventions and he is more interested in the visual and provocative side of photography, and also the effect that it has on the viewer. Moriyama stated that he believes that the most important thing about photography is the way in which the photos can make both of the artist and viewers memories relate, this is why I believe that he cares more about the emotional and aesthetic elements of photography as oppose to the traditional side.
Y U T A K A T A K A N A S H I
I M A G E A N A L Y S I S
Yutaka Takanashi was another member of 'Provoke'. He was most interested in capturing urban design, fashion and city life. He is most well known for his photographing and documentation of Tokyo. This is one of my favourite Takanashi images as I really like how it is quite strange and mysterious as we do not know what is going on within the image and we cannot really see the subject, so there are a lot of questions that can be asked regarding this photograph. We can make up our own minds about this image and it is very open to interpretation as there isn't one clear message or story. The texture is something that stands out for me in this photo, as not only is the images rather grainy and rough looking, there is also a lot of texture that can be seen on the carpet and in the subject's hair. I also love how Takanashi chose to keep this image, he selected this one when many photographers wouldn't have as it doesn't fit the normal, generic conventions of photography. This is what makes his style and this photograph so different as it isn't something that a lot of people would usually keep as a photograph or decide to publish. There is a sense of playfulness within this photo to me, despite it being in black and white and being slightly faded. Most people would associate playful art with colour, yet Takanashi still manages to prevail a child like and playful feel through a colourless image. It is not a serious image at all despite it being grey and quite dull looking.
This is also another one of my favourite Takanashi images. I believe that it was shot backstage at a fashion show. To me this image feels very intimate and personal as it is quite close up and it to me it feels like a capturing of an emotion as it is very focused on the subject and their facial expression. I also love how there is an element of mystery here again as the context is not really made clear at all due to the lack of background and environment. I believe that this photo was taken purely to capture human interaction and emotion, the image is not focused on anything else, there are no distractions in the image. Like a lot of Takanashi images, there is something slighly off about this photograph, the woman is wearing several pairs of false lashes whilst the man she is with has a very roughly shaved head. It isn't a normal looking image or something that would be considered as 'attractive' but Takanashi still manages to create a beautiful image without adhering to the conventions of photography, linking back to the whole Provoke movement which did not really focus on conventions or traditional guidelines at all.