The Japanese educational channel Eテレ recently aired a great little 30min documentary of a photo shoot Nobuyoshi Araki was commissioned for by NHK to commemorate the winners of a poetry contest held by the broadcaster.
The contest, Heart-Net, is in it’s 20th year and showcases poems by people with mental or physical disabilities and has a goal to foster equality and understanding among society. The video focuses on a junior high school student with learning disabilities who takes care of his homeroom’s goldfish and wrote a stunningly moving poem about the sky, and a thirty-five year old woman who paints and has lived with mental illness for fifteen years. These are people who aren’t normally styled and dressed in commercial photo studios in front of cameras- and I think that anyone who views this program will be facinated and even humbled by the energy and honestly straightforward kindness and dignity that Araki shows everyone he meets.
The pictures too, shown quietly at the end of the program, reflect his openness- in fact, the documentary begins with him actually agitated at the NHK cameraman who films him from the moment he gets out of a taxi to the studio door- “This isn’t about me” he sharply chides him. Later, in an interview post-photo shoot, he states (in photo 5 above) that “It’s not me who takes the photograph, it’s the camera, the lens.” He adds that all he has to do is let the subject’s own nature come through, with his duty being simply to photograph that essence faithfully. He states that in photography it’s the subject that does the expression, not the photographer.
When asked about what difficulties he’s faced losing sight in his right eye, he laughs and says that he’s “finally become an SLR.” (photo 6)
The video itself has been posted to YouTube here: Heart-Net X Araki Nobuyoshi(30min)
Be warned that it will likely be taken down soon- and despite its lack of English subtitles, it’s still an interesting chance to see the photographer at work.
The poems and Araki’s photographs of the poets will be on display at Hikarie in Shibuya from April 17-28, 7pm-10pm. Looking forward to this show!
More info (in Japanese) can be seen on NHK’s website-
1. The entry for his program on the Heart-Net blog is here.
2. The NHK site has another well done page (with many photos far better than my iPhone shots above) for the program here.
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Note: Since this is Tokyo Camera Style- I ought to point out that Araki is seen shooting a Pentax 67 with the eye-level (non-TTL) finder and the 135mm f4 Macro lens. At one point he’s shown shooting with either the 90mm f2.8 or 75mm f2.8 lens attached. As far as camera work goes, it’s interesting to see how loose he keeps the head of the tripod, so as to better be able to manipulate the camera. Even with a tripod he’s a very kinetic photographer.