Seen: 路上 IV / On The Street 4
Who: 淵上裕太 Yuta Fuchikami / website / instagram
Where: Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku
When: May 28 - June 9, 2019 / 12:00 - 7:00pm (closed Mondays)
The fourth entry in Yuta Fuchikami’s On The Street series is a change-up in materials and location. While his previous shows were of black and white photographs taken mostly in Ueno this one is all color and centers on the people he met in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro area.
I suspect that part of the reason that these images differ from his earlier, more dynamic work is due less from the adaptation of color film than to a bigger, more cumbersome camera than his previous Pentax 67 setup. For these he shot an enormous Mamiya RZ67 medium format SLR, a camera that surpasses the photographer in terms of what/who sets the pace and style of the photograph. If a Leica M is a two-door BMW, then the Pentax 67 is a 70′s era Toyota Land Cruiser- - the RZ67 has all the handling of a delivery truck. It’ll deliver, all right, but it’s a straight point A to point B kind of path. The points of the work here, straightly centered and openly shot, are competent and interesting. While the pictures might not have the same kind of magic as the monochrome Pentax 67 work they share his kind eye. In the gallery Fuchikami stepped over, leaned in, and said quietly “I knew it. Black and white is the way to go…”
Fuchikami has a 32 page photobook of his black and white work (TCS review here) that is published by Stairs Press and is priced at 2000 yen a copy. The book is available for sale in the gallery or online here.