PhotoGuide Japan – by Philbert Ono

Went to CP+ 2013 in Yokohama, Japan’s largest camera show. Although there were no major new product announcements, we got to touch and feel the latest cameras. Here are some photos of the first day on Jan 31, 2013.

CP+ billboard near the entrance of Pacifico Yokohama.

Pacifico Yokohama, CP+ venue.

There was a long line to enter the camera show. Took me 20 min. to get in. It was the fist time to take so long to get in. They need more reception staff.

CP+ 2013 inside Pacifico Yokohama.

Canon had this shooting demo setup where you could use an EOS 6D to shoot a model (seen in the corner). You could use your own SD card to record images. 10-min. wait.

Pentax model for their Evangelion camera editions.

Panasonic Lumix.

My Book is a on-demand publisher in Japan. Very limited book formats, page counts, and expensive. They aim for the low-end amateur market rather than pro photographers wanting to make photo books.

Another on-demand publisher featuring cardboard pages. vivipri.co.jp

Tamron companions line up to say goodbye at the end of the day at 5 pm.

Click here for a short video of the Casio and Nikon booths at CP+2013

Elliot Erwitt exhibition at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi (7th floor) was quite good. If you like Italy, the Pope, US presidents, or dogs, you should see it. It’s held together with the Italian Fair (food and products) on the same floor. Too bad it’s only 5 days longs, till April 16, 2012.
http://www.mitsukoshi.co.jp/store/1010/elliott/

Here’s another photo group volunteering for Tohoku. They are photographing people to make new family photo albums to replace the ones that were lost.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120306zg.html
http://photohoku.org/

Today, my photographer friend Bruce Osborn will be featured in an online TV program at NHK World called FORWARD -OYAKO Forever-. “Oyako” means parent-child. It will show him photographing families recovering in the disaster-affected areas in Tohoku. The 30-min. program will stream today several times today at the schedule below. It will be in English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic. The first stream will start now. http://www.jibtv.com/onair/oa_about.html?n=0

Japan Standard Time: Feb. 10 = 9:30, 13:30, 17:30, 21:30, 25:30
Hawaii time: Feb. 9 = 14:30, 18:30, 22:30, 2:30 am
Greenwich Mean Time: Feb. 09 = 00:30, 04:30, 08:30, 12:30, 16:30
Eastern Standard Time: Feb. 09 = 19:30, 23:30
Feb. 10 = 3:30, 7:30, 11:30
Pacific Standard Time: Feb. 09 = 16:30, 20:30, 24:30
Feb. 10 = 4:30, 8:30

Well-known Japanese photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto (石元 泰博) passed away in Tokyo on Feb. 6, 2012 due to pneumonia. He was 90 years old. Born in San Francisco, California in 1921, he was a fine-art photographer with ties to both Japan and the US. He was one of the “elder statesmen” of the Japanese photography world.

Parents were Japanese immigrant farmers in the US. Raised in Kochi city, Kochi Prefecture from age three. Studied agriculture in Kochi until 1939. Due to concerns of him being drafted in Japan, his mother urged him to return to America which he did in 1939.

Lived with a farmer and went to Univ. of California in 1940 until being interned at Armach, Colorado when war between Japan and America broke out. Since he had no assets, he did not lose anything unlike other Japanese-Americans who were interned.

He stuck with a group of shutterbugs in the internment camp. After being released in 1944, he went to Chicago after being told that he was free to go anywhere except the coastal cities. Joined a camera club in Chicago.

Studied architecture at Northwestern Univ. in Chicago 1946-48 where he met photographer Harry Shigeta and took up photography seriously. Studied under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago 1948-52 (B.S. degree 1952).

Freelance photographer in Tokyo 1953-58; Chicago 1958-61, and Tokyo since 1961 after moving back to Japan. Naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 1969. Instructor at Kuwazawa Design School 1962-1966 and Tokyo Photographic College 1962-1971. Professor at Tokyo Zokei Univ. Photo Dept. 1966-1971.

With ties to both Japan and America, Ishimoto gained recognition in both countries. He took an interest in traditional Japanese architecture, starting with photographs of the Katsura Palace in Kyoto. (Katsura was subsequently published by Yale Univ. Press.) His photo book, Chicago, Chicago is another signature work.

He has received numerous awards including Medal with Purple Ribbon and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette. Survived by his nephew Takashi.

In early Jan. 2012, a store in Osaka plastered their shop with large, red posters advertising a sale with the words “Fu**in’ sale.” They were trying to advertise their sale of fukubukuro (lucky bags). A photo of it went viral on Facebook and the Internet.

The shop has taken down the signs and apologized:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086390/Japanese-department-store-makes-grovelling-apology-plastering-shop-windows-F–Sale-posters.html?ITO=1490

Canon booth at the last CP+ show in Feb. 2011.

The 3rd CP+ Camera & Photo Imaging Show, Japan’s largest camera show, will be held during Feb. 9-12, 2012 in Yokohama, at Pacifico Yokohama, a large convention complex and the same venue as last year’s CP+. Hopefully, it won’t snow on those days.

Note that the morning of Feb. 9, the show is open to the press only.

Admission is 1,000 yen at the door, but this fee can be waived if you preregister via the CP+ Website.

You can also register to attend free seminars and lectures where they sometimes provide simultaneous Japanese or English translation. The year 2012 is also the 150th anniversary of commercial photography in Japan. Lectures about vintage photography are planned. A special talk by Ellliot Erwitt is also scheduled on Feb. 9.
http://www.cpplus.jp/en/seminar.html

http://www.cpplus.jp/en/press/pdf/CP+2012PR_1130E.pdf

For details, see the show’s official site in English:
http://www.cpplus.jp/en/

See my photos of CP+ 2011 here.

Pacifico Yokohama is near JR Sakuragicho and Minato Mirai Stations:
http://www.pacifico.co.jp/english/

CP+ is held by CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association). CIPA is an international organization comprised of companies involved in the production and sale of silver-halide camera and digital camera, imaging-related products, software and more. In addition to product specifications, standards and technical research, CIPA deals with environmental issues and other industry-wide issues and seeks to contribute to the development of photographic and imaging culture.
Web site: http://www.cipa.jp/english/

My friend Brian Y. Sato, a sansei Japanese-American from Hawai’i, is having his first exhibition in Japan of his Japanese-American Nisei portraits.

Photographing the dying generation of Nisei has been Brian’s pet project since 2002 when I first met him and was very impressed by his project that included portraits of Nisei I personally knew. His portraits are very compelling and sometimes stark representations of this historical and storied generation.

The Nisei are the second-generation Japanese-Americans born to the Issei or first-generation Japanese who immigrated to Hawai’i. This generation are now elderly from their 70s on up. It’s like catch them while you still can. They all have their unique stories. Some have been told and recorded, while many others have died with them. Brian has encountered many nisei who refused to open up and be photographed. But he insisted that he did not want their stories to die with them.

Upon skillful persuasion, Brian has amassed around 200 nisei portraits from all the major Hawaiian islands (including Molokai and Lanai). He has already exhibited them in Hawai’i and the US mainland, but never in Japan until now. I kept urging him to show these portraits in Japan and he is finally doing it.

Portraits from his Nisei of Hawai’i collection will be exhibited at the Nikon Salon in Tokyo and Osaka as follows. He tells me that he’ll be at the gallery most of the time, but you could call and ask to make sure.

Title: GOKURŌSAMA: Second-Generation Japanese-Americans in Hawaii
Place: Shinjuku Nikon Salon (Map)
Shinjuku Station Exit A17, Shinjuku L Tower 28th floor
Phone: 03-3344-0565
Date/Hours: Oct 18 – Oct 31, 2011
10:30 to 18:30 (Oct. 31: 10:30 to 15:00)
Open every day.

IN OSAKA

Place: Osaka Nikon Salon (Map)
Osaka Station Exit A4, Hilton Plaza West Office Tower 13th floor
Phone: 06-6348-9698
Date/Hours: Nov. 3-16, 2011
10:30 to 18:30 (Oct. 31: 10:30 to 15:00)
Open every day.

Relevant links:

http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2009/3/27/faces-of-a-generation/
http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2009/2/6/nisei-of-hawaii/
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/09/01/features/story01.html
http://www.janm.org/exhibits/gokurosama/

http://www.briansato.com/