Seen: 路上 VIII / On The Street 8
Who: 淵上裕太 Yuta Fuchikami / website / instagram
Where: Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku
When: December 8 - 20, 2020 / 12:00 - 7:00pm (closed Mondays)
This is more work which Fuchikami made in Ueno Park- the most interesting park to wander around Tokyo with a camera.
He’s a natural portrait maker- His photos- while always being such that the subjects probably would be pleased- are made with a combination of respect, obligation, and mystery. They’re never ever sentimental or attempts to illustrate an archetype- or thankfully attempts at using the subjects to push some social or moral agenda. To me they’ve got a Japanese humanism to them- they’re beautiful and sometimes uncomfortable and often have that sho-ga-nai (It Can’t Be Helped) acceptance of life. His images are not calls to action or pity- they’re straightforward presentations of individuals.
He’s a natural- - certainly in how he frames an image but to me what really puts him in that upper stratosphere of Tokyo Street Photographers (I’m thinking Suda, Kikai, Arimoto, Hoshi) is his interest in his subjects as actual people. I can’t quite put it into words.. his subjects aren’t “elements” or “characters” (prey). They’re people he’s interested in enough to approach and interact with. Somehow he’s able to take a picture- and a remarkable one, at that. As for the “how” he takes them- - - He’s got this strange, unteachable skill…. he’s got this “something” that’s rather mysterious and extremely rare. I’ve been with him in Ueno and watched it happen. I can’t explain it but knowing him, it’s his personality. He’s himself- and doesn’t have ideas or expectations- and he’s got that Pentax 67 and curiosity in hand and just goes up and does his thing. It’s not something teachable- I promise you there’s no Youtube walk-through tutorial that’ll help you do this. Either you can and will- or you can’t/won’t. Either a photograph is worth the effort needed to make, or it isn’t. That’s how this game works!