Two suggested and somewhat intertwined reads on Japanese photography-
1.
Written for IMA magazine vol.3 by writer Marc Feustel and via the new site for longform writing on photography, papercuts:
To look is everything: Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Masahisa Fukase and Shomei Tomatsu
In 2012 three of Japan’s most distinctive and influential photographic voices, Masahisa Fukase, Yasuhiro Ishimoto and Shomei Tomatsu, passed away. Is a certain approach to photography fading away?
2.
From the excellentTrans Asia Photography Review:
Distinctiveness versus Universality: Reconsidering New Japanese Photography
Art historian Yoshiaki Kai brings to light details of the creation of the 1974 MOMA show New Japanese Photography, a collaborative exhibition between John Szarkowski and the legendary editor Shoji Yamagishi. The entire piece is fascinating, and the excerpts from the critics encountering the work are quite interesting:
Bewildered by Moriyama’s work, the photo critic Andy Grundberg could not resist suggesting: “Daidoh [sic] Moriyama … is considered the doyen of the current generation of young photographers, but from the selection here one might think he was four or five photographers—all members of a degraded camera club.”