It is amazing how invisible a photographer can be these days if he doesn't have a web site, especially if he hales from a non english speaking nation. I recently found, by accident, the work of the Japanese photographer Abe Jun, I took a chance and ordered, from Japan, his book Citizens and have been delighted at his quiet understated vision of Japanese daily life filled with subtle visual echos. I don't believe his work is well known in the west and this is probably due to the lack of any web presence that I have been able to find...he is virtually invisible. Its pretty rare to find a street photographer you didn't know and even rarer when the work is of this standard.
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
Image: Abe Jun
This reminded me of another virtually Invisible street photographer, Cristobal Hara whose book Vanitas is one of the best books of street imagery ever published but without a web presence his work fails to get the audience and recognition it deserves. Late at night after a few drinks I sat in the back of a yellow cab in NYC with Cristobal and the NYC street photographer Gus Powell trying to persuade Cristobal to let us show his work on in-public. To my delight, he agreed...only to change his mind a few weeks later. Whilst I respect his decisions, it seems a shame that his work is not as available to inspire us as that of so many less qualified street photographers. A google image search reveals little of Cristobal's wonderfully colorful, surreal and ambiguous imagery.
image: Cristobal Hara
image: Cristobal Hara
Image: Cristobal Hara
Image: Cristobal Hara
Image: Cristobal Hara
Image: Cristobal Hara
Image: Cristobal Hara
Vanitas is available from Schaden and Citizens through Japan Exposures
Visit my books page for my street photography 'must own' books list.
The Virtually Invisible Street Photographers
January 7th, 2010
12 Responses to “The Virtually Invisible Street Photographers”
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January 7th, 2010 - 9:06 am
Excellent work indeed!
And yes, you simply need to be present on the internet now.
January 7th, 2010 - 11:07 am
[...] i vad jag känner till om japansk foto är Abe Jun, en ruggigt bra gatufotograf om man skall tro bildcitaten på Nick Turpins [...]
January 7th, 2010 - 11:55 am
Thanks Nick for finding them. I really like Jun’s pictures. Will more of Jun Abe’s work be shown on inPublic?
cheers.
Pete
January 7th, 2010 - 12:04 pm
Peter, I’m not sure but I think one of the reasons we see so little of his work and that of more Asian street photographers is because of the language barrier. I’d love to invite him to show a gallery on in-public but I might need to do a Japanese course first…or find a japanese speaking go between. He has done a project called ‘Animals’ as well I think, I’d love to see that.
January 7th, 2010 - 1:37 pm
Thank you for these rare pictures. After beeing in Tokyo last year and making street photographs I am very interested in Japanese photography and try to enlarge my view in this direction.
Martin
January 7th, 2010 - 9:09 pm
Ahhh that last Hara – one of my all time faves. Was sad not to to be able to persuade the 2 ‘S’s to include it in the book…
January 8th, 2010 - 12:07 am
Hey Nick,
we love your photography. We want you at our place.
Help us build a street photo site.
http://watercooler.markushartel.com
your presence is requested…cheers//matt (London)
January 8th, 2010 - 9:47 pm
Slowly and timidly raising my hand….
I’m confused. Cristobal doesn’t want to be featured on one website but his images are posted on another anyway? There has to be a reason he declined in-public. It may be a personal decision?
January 9th, 2010 - 10:43 am
@Eric I think he is not keen on the way pictures look on a screen, I have been careful only to post here a correlation of images I could find via google image search, I haven’t posted anything new or unseen of Cristobals. Its always a fine line with posting other peoples work for discussion, without the images above there would be no discussion and I guess that was the whole point of my post.
As an aside..
I think if you have a book and you scan and post a few images as part of an article then you are really just quoting from something already in the public domain, this is quite different to scanning and posting a whole publication as Blake Andrews did with the ‘New Topographics’….and got his wrist slapped by Eastman House. Although I think Eastman House were wrong there too because they don’t make that document available to the public online themselves.
March 15th, 2010 - 9:04 am
Cristobal Hara is not a virtually invisible photographer. He is a well reputed photographer in Spain and I have seen most of his photographs published by major Spanish newspapers..
March 16th, 2010 - 9:48 am
@Diego Cristobal Hara is, as you say, well known in Spain and published in Spain…which I think supports my argument that his lack of web presence has restricted the dissemination of his work beyond his home country. With a web site, his work would reach a global audience beyond the small territory of Spain.
April 18th, 2010 - 12:49 am
His latest book, Kokubyaku Note, just came out. Well worth a look and a fine companion to Citizens.