"With 111 intimate colour portraits on plain white paper featuring locals and residents from all walks of life - including family, friends and fellow Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama - Homma tells an unfiltered story of the ordinary people who make up Japan. They're portraits that focus on the raw emotion of his subjects, guided by empathy and a desire to showcase people as they are."
"The honesty and simplicity of Portrait of J has long been a hallmark of Homma's work, and extends to the descriptions of the portraits in the book, which only state each person's occupation - an idea he says was lifted from German photographer August Sander's 1929 book, Face of Our Time, which similarly captured ordinary people within interwar Germany."
"Homma is also a musician - he plays piano and guitar - and his love of music is often woven through his work; in 2023, his exhibition Revolution 9, at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, borrowed its title from the Beatles song of the same name, and featured pieces that focused on improvisation and used entire hotel rooms as giant camera obscuras."
Takashi Homma has photographed fashion campaigns, published numerous books, and documented life in Tokyo over four decades. Portrait of J, published by Dashwood Books, contains 111 intimate colour portraits printed on plain white paper and features locals, friends, family and fellow photographer Daido Moriyama. The portraits prioritize raw emotion, empathy and simple, honest presentation. Captions list only each subject's occupation, a method inspired by August Sander's Face of Our Time. The earliest images date to 2002, and Homma's musical practice and past exhibitions inform his improvisational, pared-back approach. The project engages concerns about a silent societal crisis and demographic loss referenced for 2024.
Read at AnOther
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]