Seen: Eye of The Vortex
Who: Eric エリック / portfolio site: ericolour.com
Where: Guardian Garden, Ginza
When: Sept. 8 - 25th, 11am - 7pm (closed Sundays)
Eric, a Hong Kong born photographer who goes simply by his first name, is currently having his dizzyingly saturated colorful photographs of India at Guardian Garden in Ginza. While viewing the images at the opening last night I was struck by the fact that these are images that only Eric could make. His use of a Leica + a flash + strangers in a foreign country isn’t applied in hopes of gaining notoriety or a buzz online- instead he uses his tools to create some of the best current street work out there, having some excellent photobooks published along the way.
While you can see almost every image from this series on his website, the accompanying photobook, published by Akaaka, is an even better way to spend time enjoying all the details which permeate his frames. Seeing all the prints in person however, is an entirely different affair. Every shot was taken with his Leica M7 on Kodak film, and every print in the show was hand printed in his color darkroom. In only two days, he told me. Eric is a very good and efficient printer. He doesn’t need a negative scanner or an inkjet printer to do what he does.
You can see more instillation views of the show here. This is a great show and one well worth checking out in Tokyo this month.