Teens and tohoku

This sounds interesting: Tomo (友 – friend), an anthology of Japan-related teen fiction to raise money for the relief effort in Tohoku

Power play

I almost passed another Thomas Struth photo by. The first time I saw one of his photos in a gallery, I also almost passed it by. This time, a quick glance at a news report of his photograph online and I thought, "What's special about that photo?" and clicked on. Then went back. Then read the article. As with that photo in a gallery maybe 20 years ago, something made me look again. 20 years ago it was a seemingly simple architectural street shot featuring no people and at first glance with no distinguishing features that kept my attention. But at his best, Struth creates a visual "tension" somehow in the seemingly mundane. And that "tension" is a hallmark of one strand of great art, whether it's music or visual art, say, lyric or photo. By working being undemonstrative, by setting off one aspect (idea, musical phrase, brush stroke etc) against another, by letting the viewer/listener realise there is more and by "suspending" the work above their expectations, the artist creates a "tension" that holds an idea up. Raises it and suspends it, creating the impact by that creative tension.

It's in the smile of Mona Lisa, and the mismatched horizon behind her; in the muted trumpet of Miles Davis when you expect a full note; in a lyric by Bob Dylan when you expect a straightforward pairing of phrases but get the opposite or simply the more difficult. And at times this comes across to the audience as effortless, whereas a talent and skill and hard thought-through expression of the art is behind the apparent simplicity.

While I'm not comparing any of those with each other or with Struth's work, so it is with this newly commissioned photo of Prince Philip and the Queen. The Queen has worked with many modern artists with differing results. So what's special about this one, especially as it seems like a failed snapshot at first glance?

You'd expect the Queen to be also the centre of attention in the photo. But she's slightly overexposed, by the light of the window, while Prince Philip is more in shadow. But Struth has exposed for the shadow, and, though off-centre, it is Philip's face which draws the attention. The Queen is the lighted one, but the man in her shadow is the subject. Yet he will always be "in her shadow", so he's both the focus and the "lesser" sitter – although he's the main subject in this photo taken for his 90th birthday. So, Struth has placed the main subject in a secondary position while keeping him the main subject. Setting up one of the perceived "tensions".

So the centre is not the centre, and also the left-hand third of the photo is the out-of-focus room. It, like the over-exposure, looks almost a mistake – that failed snapshot look. But Struth has placed the couple in situ. The room is something we'll never experience as our front rooms. It's opulent and royal, and almost slightly ridiculous, although Struth doesn't make that statement. The in-focus side gives us the detail, the rest is there to show this continues – it's a real room to these two. Two older people who, on one human level, should be at odds with this expression of opulence and wealth, but who in fact sit almost comfortably within it: this is a royal photo after all. Yet Struth has made them also merely two older people – not sarcastically as, for example, Martin Parr may have done, but just realistically. In the midst of this rich architecture, Philip's jacket – just a tad uncomfortably, just a tad "old man" style – is buttoned awkwardly and high across his stomach. There is the tension of setting and the human, of elite and simply a couple, of the background of history which he leaves for you to make of it what you will.

After the simple play of light (and you can see he has moved that chair to place the Queen and Philip is the differing light just how he wants), with the chair slightly angled (so Philip is also further away, another created "tension" for the focal point) there is a final detail which is neat. The two sit at either side of the sofa, each with an elbow on the sofa's arms, separated by 6 inches of empty space: somewhat formal. And yet there is body language – the Queen's feet subtly point toward Philip in a way which any amateur body language explorer will know is an indication of a person's affection for the other. She needs him, even though she's the one in the light. She's removed from our centre of attention, but she we always be the centre of attention and the person we look at is the one important to her.

There will be those who couldn't care about the monarchy and hence about this photo. But Struth has pulled off what will be a great photo in the history of monarchic portraits, whatever one may think of the monarchy itself. Coupled with a history, the photo will be revealing in future years. He's combined his interest in architecture with a human portrait, a portrait of power but also of power in a relationship, a portrait of the Queen in which her husband is the focus while she is the dominant. A seemingly casual play of "tensions" between aspects and themes, which lift it up. You might walk past it in a gallery you might. But I'd also guess you might look again. And again.

Art of letters

Type art, with cut letters falling off the walls, from Ryo Shimizu, who explains the installation in part as about Japan's culture of appropriation turning people into cultural amnesiacs… Originally from 2009, but recently highlighted on fastcodesign

Snail mail to raise money

New stamps released by Japan Post to raise money for the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. Each stamp will cost an extra 20 yen which will go to the relief effort, which with 70 million stamps printed is not a small amount.

The design is perhaps just a tad twee, but is also likely the most acceptable and clear for the broad swathe of the population who would purchase these, so who's complaining.

Japonize your wallpaper

Instant, adaptable wallpaper using classic Japanese designs here with the Japonizer.

Portraits: 16

Bob Hoskins, actor/director, members club, London, 1990
This was one of the shortest shoots I did. I arrived at the club and checked my watch to see I was on time. When I was back on the street – having met, found a place on the club stairs to photograph him, packed up and exited back onto the street – little more than 5 minutes had passed. Hoskins was an amiable sitter with a knowledge of cameras and lenses. I took this close-up only inches from his face. "'ang on a minute," he said, "you're distorting my face, right." I said no, just getting a close-up. "Let me see," he said, and took the camera and looked at me through it from the same distance. "Oh, right. That's OK. Good lens," he said and we carried on. For City Limits (and for which I designed my first cover with the selected photo.)

Joe Humble, priest, outside his church, London, 1994
I photographed 70-year-old Joe for Nursing Standard to be featured in an article about the fact that he was HIV positive (contracted during a gay relationship 8 years before). The fact that he was an older man, when HIV interest was concentrated on the "young", and that he was a priest were the centre of the interview and report. I don't know what happened with Joe since – I can find no subsequent information on him since that time. I remember talking about freedom with him and quoting the song "Me and Bobby McGee" to him - "Freedom's just another word/for nothing left to loose" – which he definitely disagreed with.

For more on these portraits, see here, and the Portraits tag at right.

Cheap

Low-cost flying usually goes for the cheap and cheerful look. (Although painting aircraft can never be cheap, I guess.) New low-cost airline in Japan, Peach, has gone for… purple, I guess, rather than peach. An introduction to the plane interior and exterior design by a L.A.-based architect Neil Denari is over on Fastcodesign, here. Looks pretty bright and funky – although the article misses that Peach is also an anagram for Cheap.

(What is the urge for cheap flight airlines to be bright? Instant recognition; an idea that you don't have to stay long; a trend already set long ago by McDonald's; a demonstration of energy?)

Magazine launch

Good to see WIRED Japan – again. It always had superb layout, so I'm looking forward to seeing it from tomorrow, the relaunch date.

Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner...

...on the iPad. Right or wrong, it's interesting – and interesting criticism n the comments afterthe interview

On Fukushima

My cover for the latest print issue of the in-house Foreign Correspondents' Club magazine, concentrating on the Fukushima issues.

And some interesting stuff (especially for those under the impression that Japanese aren't critical enough) which is online: an interview with Japan's first astronaut who turned organic farmer in Fukushima only to have to leave, and a translated Newsweek Japan article criticising the foreign media and their handling of the crisis (and our editor's response).

Masks

Why do I only find out about many exhibitions when they're over? Here's another interesting looking one I missed. Bidou Yamaguchi is a master of Noh masks, and this exhibition featured masks of other famous painted faces: as he says on his site, "I was able to have a personal dialogue with the Rennaissance masters that touched my soul."

See the portrait-masks and Noh masks on Yamaguchi's site.

Blur

What's this obsession with high definition? OK, for TV it's a technological progression and a business move. But there seems a general acceptance that clarity and high definition is a "standard". Open many a magazine and the imagery is pin-sharp and often studio-based. Lights fill in any shadow area, focus is sharp and delineated, revealing. Our TV screens whether business or not are moving from regular to HD to extra high definition.

So is it just me who doesn't see the world that way? One of my eyes never focuses even with glasses, so maybe it is just me, but I see the actual world in a less high definition state than the contemporary image seems to want to recreate that world in (or create it in to).

I gave up professional photography a long time ago, so my comment may be irrelevant. If I was working now, magazines would demand sharpness and lighting (whereas the ones I worked for often liked the indefinite, and blur was acceptable). At the time, I focused as I saw the world – often a somewhat limited focus. I often used the "modeling" light of the flash (the light used as a guide for arranging the subject before the actual flash was used) because it would provide light where there was none but wouldn't freeze the subject in permanent, bright and clear outline.

If my comments are irrelevant because I don't work in the field anymore, perhaps nevertheless there's something to be gained from Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows, then. Decades ago, he was bemoaning the loss of shadows in brightly-lit Japan, pointing out that much art and craft was designed to be seen in such non-revealing light. Now, neon-lit Japan is having to switch off superfluous light to save electricity after the problems at Fukushima. Clarity will be turned down a notch at night. While they are not exactly the same thing – focus and brightness – there is an overlap.

Perhaps how I see the world (non-HD) is going to be a new norm. Though we'll have high-definition TVs in the corner of our shadowed room.

(There is of course, plenty of contemporary imagery that doesn't fit the HD critera, I'm talking only of an accepted "standard". And I don't include in my thoughts such clear, fascinating HD imagery of the world we don't usually see!)

Portraits: 15

Rutger Hauer, actor, hotel, London, 1992
Another shoot during the interview, which means a couple of weird expressions as I caught Hauer mid-word. But it also meant this quite nice laughing blur during the conversation. Hauer was the only person who said "that's enough" to me although I hadn't shot much – firstly, because I rarely did (and more often got the comment, "Is that all?"), and secondly, because I had to wait to shoot until he wasn't open-mouthed mid-speech. Anyway, one of the final selection (though not either of these) made the cover of City Limits.

Jools Holland, musician, at his studio/home, London, 1993
This was a PR shoote, not for a magazine. The more generic shots maybe worked better for PR, but I liked both of these: a part-solarised, Polaroid negative, shot outside, and a weary-looking one at the piano in the studio. Jools often looks sort of weary (an aspect that has become part of his TV-presenting image) though clearly this photo is more portrait than PR. His home (a railway station conversion) was interesting – as were his stories.

For more on these portraits, see here, and the Portraits tag at right.