Seen: Shimokitazawa By Leica / ライカで下北沢
Who: Nobuyoshi Araki 荒木経惟
Where: Shimokitazawa Alley Hall, Shimokitazawa (map)
When: May 24 - May 31, 2019 (Open daily 2-8pm. Last day until 7pm )
Admission: 300 yen
Shimokita Voice is an organization run by concerned citizens and business owners Tokyo’s Shimokitazwa area. The group formed in 2007 as a response against the drastic redevelopment plans the city had for their neighborhood. Anyone who knew pre-2007 Shimokitazawa and has visited there recently knows that the development went ahead and erased much of the cozy, local, and funky shops and streets that made the neighborhood so unique. Shimokita remains a fun place to visit but- at the risk of being “that guy”- I remember it being much crazier, dirtier, and far more interesting when I started going there in 2001. (For those who know, I have two words: Cafe Masako.)
In 2007 Shimokita Voice asked Nobuyoshi Araki to document the streets and the people of the neighborhood. Titled “Shimokitazawa By Leica”, the photographs were all taken with his Leica M7 (video). This show echoes back to Araki’s other Leica-snapped locally-focused book “Hitomachi” which centered around the Yanaka district of Tokyo in 1998.
The Shimokitazawa work has been exhibited a few times since its debut. The current exhibition features 130 pictures. Rather than finely produced silver gelatin prints, these pictures fit with the best parts of the area’s vibe by being what I suspect are laser prints or straight photocopies of “real” prints. The show’s many A3 copy-paper pictures are simply pinned to black vinyl panels held up by supports. The practicality of the exhibition methods to me reflects the nature of the group’s love for what makes (made?) Shimokitazawa, Shimokitazawa.
Looking through the images, I was struck how much has disappeared from the area since they were taken. However it’s inevitable that 2019′s Shimokitazawa is some young person’s definitive version of the place- a version that will disappear yet again in twenty years to their chagrin. So it goes!
Proceeds from the 300 yen entry fee, Araki Shimokita postcard sets, and “Living In Shimokitazawa” documentary DVDs go to support Shimokita Voice.