Seen: Bus Stops (L.A.)1974,1975年
Who: 広川 泰士 Taishi Hirokawa / website
Where: Place M, Shinjuku
When: November 9 - 15, 2020
In 1974 photographer Taishi Hirokawa visited Los Angeles and made remarkable photographs of bus stops and the people who found themselves using the city’s public transportation system. Just 25 years old at the time, his photographs possess that kind of immediacy and wit that all good pictures share.
This is one of the things I love about photo galleries in Tokyo- you have the opportunity to stumble onto amazing, (mostly) unknown work. But you have to be fast- this show was only up for six days.
There’s a tendency to frame “new-old” (old-new?) pictures against the work of well known/accepted Master Photographers- and I’m afraid there’s kind of this general misunderstanding that all the good stuff’s been seen and published already. That “masters” are masters because of the sheer quality of their work (often yes), compared to all the other photos that were ever taken (no!) seems generally accepted. This is why Vivian Maier’s discovery blew so many minds- but I’m convinced that there are thousands of unseen/unknown potential books and series out there.
Granted, Hirokawa isn’t an “unknown” photographer- he’s been exhibiting since 1978, has had work published since 1987, and has been Director of Photography for three films. Still, this is the first time these pictures have ever been shown.