Seen: Ariphoto 2014 vol.2
Who: Shinya Arimoto
Where: Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku (map)
When: 12:00 - 19:00 / Oct. 21 - Nov. 2nd (closed Mondays)
Shinya Arimoto’s Ariphoto series has seen only two installments this year- one in January, and this autumn show of work from a series I’ve seen titledTokyo Debugger. It’s a continuation of an exhibition of photographs of the natural world Arimoto held at TPPG in October of 2013.
For the second consecutive summer, three or four times every week Arimoto took his medium format film cameras and a massive ring-flashed lens with a bunch of Kodak T-Max up into the forested mountains west of Tokyo in Okutama to photograph the citizens he encountered there- the kind with with scales, claws, stingers, and thoraxes. The surrounding landscape that these creatures permeate is as visually as important to this series as anything with antennae might be as well.
I said this last year, but I’ll say it again:
The thing about Arimoto is this- he makes his pictures no matter where he is whether out on the plains of Tibet, the streets of Shinjuku, or in dense mountain forests of Japan. There is perhaps no better goal or even compliment for a photographer than this. His “style” isn’t one of any visual technique, but rather the product of an independent and personal view of the world.
That’s what it’s about, photography. Anything else is either dishonest or boring. Arimoto personifies the very best of what’s so interesting about photographers in Japan.
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Visitors to the gallery while the show is up will be able to pick up his latest (beautifully) self-published 11x14 photo zine- Ariphotovol.5. This publication will be available online only AFTER this exhibition has closed. Watch for a review and ordering information here as soon as he has prepared his onlie shop.
Arimoto Blog Bonus: I’m digging this picture from this summer.