Seen: User Consumer
Who: Dan Epthorp
Where: Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku
When: October 22 - November 3, 2019 12:00 - 7:00 (Closed Mondays)
Dan Epthorp is making some of the most interesting and original photographs that I know- and I look forward to every one of his shows and the boxes of 5x7 workprints he brings when we meet up.
While everything in this show has been snapped in or around Tokyo it’s never ever about the (generally agreed upon) social/cultural concepts of this city- or Japan in general. I’m drawn to how both his work and eye are utterly unconcerned with anything but his interest on his own terms with the medium of 35mm black and white photography. I’m also energized by his absolute lack of interest in photography online- in both the sharing or caring about it.
His entire body of work is evidence that it’s still possible to encounter pictures which reflect clearly how a particular individual sees the world.
I’ve been struggling with how to put this idea into words but his pictures possess a purity of self which few- especially foreigners in Japan- can approach.
When I get pulled into Dan’s pictures I am reminded by quote by Walker Evans regarding what be believed “Valid photography” consisted:
“In short it is not a lie – a cliché – somebody else’s idea. It is prime vision combined with quality of feeling, no less.”
In the case of this photographer "feeling” works out to be “interest” in making pictures that are interesting for him, and on their own terms. Luckily- but only in the gallery- viewers get a chance to see and learn as well.