People

I have always had trouble shooting people, I prefer not moving object with a good composition. But it´s really the people photos you remember. They can trigger memories, sadness, happiness, give you a new view on what is happening far away from you and much more. This post is supposed to compare the two photographers Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey that both have a very separated styles of capturing the world and what goes on in it.

Annie Leibovitz has a direct approach and is in a big way taking part in the actions she herself is portraying. When James Nachtwey on the other hand is standing calmly on the outside trying to capture the sadness and roughness of war. But with both photographers I get the feeling of crossing the line of peoples barriers. It sometimes gets to close and personal for what is considered ok, but since they are accepted by the people around them they can be there and take those up close photos that really catch your heart.

I tried the early Annie Leibovitz method on one of my friends, "trying to take a lot of photographs until you they kind of forget that the camera is there". I only did this for one day with her, so I could not really see any difference in her behavior or in the photographs that came out of it. But when I instead take photographs of my fiance, he dose not even look at the camera or change his body language when I take his picture. I would assume that this is because I have taken photographs off him in the past to the extent that he is perfectly at ease with the camera. Is it then a benefit to be able to catch people in their actions without them being affected by the fact that a camera is present? I do not really know, I think it depends on what you want to catch in your photographs. Do you want the image that someone puts up for you to put on print or do you want to catch the naked truth? The answer might surprise you.

先生

This assignment goes under the title Portrait of a Japanese Person and when I started thinking about whom I would like o photograph it did not take very long to come up with my answer. Off course I wanted to take the portrait of the Japanese person that has had most impact on me and my life in Japan and my wishes for the future. This person is my ceramics teacher, who has the ability to make clay dance under his skillful hands.

Sensei (先生) has the ability to make you think you can do anything if you just practice and he never says that something is impossible. If you want to try something new, he tells you how to do it without coloring it with his own thoughts or views of how thing should be. He usually have his hands full with work, but some how always manage to take the time to help out when asked. All in all, I consider Sensei to be one of the best teachers I have ever had and I am very grateful to him, for teaching me how to change a little bit of clay and minerals in to whatever form.

When I asked him if I could take the portrait of him he wondered what it was for and I told him that it was for a class assignment, he seamed pleased with the answer. When I later told him that the picture should reflect him as a person he only said "as you like" the same answer that he says when you try to explain an idea that you want some advise on regarding pottery so it was a little bit hard to figure out the best way to take the portrait properly. But at the actual portrait taking day, I had my friend who is much more skillful in Japanese that I by my side and she could convey the "your personality" to Sensei in Japanese and then he said that it might be good to show him working, and I agreed. Since it is the work part of him I know, I figured that it is this side of him I want to show.

I am very pleased by the picture, since it shows Sensei with a small smile that you usually get when you talk to him sometimes, or ask ridiculous questions like "can you mix clay and glaze to make the clay waterproof?" which I am sure he enjoys. This is a salute to my teacher and I can only hope to one day be on his level of skill and knowledge.

Mountain Door Town

I live in a small part of Hirakatashi which I like to call the Mountain Door Town (because you could read the address kanji like that). The neighborhood is quite small and as I find it to be a family and student area (but it also has some sketchy spots). I base this on the fact that the people I have talked to is usually students living in the small apartments or family's living in the traditional Japanese houses that you also find here. There is also kids playing on the streets almost everyday in this area and across to my apartment house there is a traditional japanese house and every afternoon I can hear a Japanese boy coming home from school and calling out "Tadaima" to his family.

The local supermarket is a hotspot in the neighborhood, and why would not it be, we all need to eat right? Usually I see women doing the shopping and rarely men, this would indicate that most of my neighborhood is a tradition bound area where women take care of the house and the men bring home the cash. But nothing is ever for sure, I would only assume that this is the case. But one thing to back up my logic is the woman I sometimes run in to when I am doing my grocery shopping. She speaks English with me and talks about her life, which goes in the line of what I earlier described. I have not asked if I could use here stories for this assignment since it was awhile since I last ran in to her so I will sadly leave the details out. But the supermarket is not only a place for shopping, it is also a place for talking with friends and catching up on the neighborhood gossip. I see people coming to the supermarket and spending a long time talking to friends and then only buying something small that you might have gone without for one or two days more.

Another thing that ties the Mountain Door Town together is the small farmers market that is crammed in between two houses on my street. The market is not open everyday nor every week, yet it seems to have some kind of schedule that everybody in the neighborhood except for me have the hang of. But when I occasionally pass by when it is there I always see a lot of people coming to indulge themselves in what I presume is locally grown vegetables, but I have also seen the small market selling flowers and the range has been changing with the seasons and this would indicate that it is in fact locally grown. The people I see going there is again usually females, but in a higher age group and everybody seems to be well acquainted with one another and stand by the market to talk just as at the supermarket.

There is also agriculture going on in the middle of the neighborhood which I am very fascinated by. People that in this "modern time" in a way continues with a tradition we humans have had since we settled down and stopped being hunters and gatherers. It must be a hard task to grow good crops in the middle of an urbanized area and I can only start imagining the hardship they must deal with regarding pollution and other effects or their crops. But it is one way in the right direction of saving this planet so I would just like to say "keep up the good work"!

I think that the neighborhood inhabitants have a lot that connects them together and I can only assume that there is a lot going on beneath the surface that I haven´t been able to penetrate since I am a foreigner and have a lack of understanding, connections and language skills to be able to take an active part in the society.

Cultivation in the end of my street

Just missed another small farmers market