Seen: Tokyo Circulation
Who: Shinya Arimoto / website
Where: Zen Foto Gallery, Roppongi
When: July 2nd - August 3rd, 2016
2016 has been a big year for Shinya Arimoto. First, The Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography in Nara was host to a massive solo exhibition pulling together not only his work from Tibet and Tokyo, but his previous color pictures as well. This was followed by a exquisitely published photobook, Tokyo Circulation, by Zen Foto Gallery in Tokyo.
Both the book and the accompanying exhibition presents images from his Ariphoto series (sans Tokyo Debugger and Tibet volumes)- Indeed, the new hardbound book is the same 11x14 size as Arimoto’s self-published books- and features two bodies of work, sets of pictures divided by camera- the earlier work, taken with his Rolleiflex, and the most recent done with his Hasselblad SWC. This isn’t tech talk- the difference in how the pictures work is reliant on lens and camera but Arimoto’s unifying vision* keeps it all together, perfectly.
Order your signed copy of the book** here: Shinya Arimoto Tokyo Circulation 8000 yen
(500 copies each in Silver, or Black covers- identical content inside)
Copies are going VERY fast. Note that his Ariphoto volumes sell out within weeks- this is a popular book, so act sooner than later.
*too often, when used in discussion of photography, “vision” is used sloppily as a synonym for “ideas”. Not here- it’s all about how he sees- that’s vision. Ideas come later.
** Disclosure- I was asked to translate Arimoto’s text for this publication. This isn’t a conflict of interest though- I’m no journalist, and regardless, I’d push this book just as hard even if I had nothing to do with it.