Shashin: are-bure-boke

It is more than 10 years since Michael Hoppen
Gallery’s first Japanese photography exhibition Eyes
of an Island. Since then the gallery has cemented its
relationship with Japan and now holds one of the
most important and extensive collections of post-war
Japanese photography outside of Asia. We are proud
to represent many important Japanese artists and
estates and continue to play a key role in introducing
Japanese photography to major museum collections
and collectors.
Shashin: are-bure-boke is not a reprise of the gallery’s
earlier show but rather an offering across both floors
that will introduce a new public to some of Japan’s
most important post-war photographers as well as
lesser-known artists whose work we admire. The title
of the exhibition – the Japanese word for ‘photograph’
followed by the description applied to the radical new
visual style of the Provoke photographers, recognises
the huge reach and significance of the Provoke
generation.
The exhibition encompasses a range of photographic
techniques – from Kazuma Ogawa’s collotypes of Noh
actors made in the late 19th century to Sohei Nishino’s
recent diorama map of Tokyo, which combines analogue
photography, collage and digital printing. It will be
an opportunity to relish Miyako Ishiuchi’s distinctive
hand-made silver gelatin prints alongside Masatoshi
Naito’s disturbing vision of Tokyo’s underbelly, as well
as prints by key masters such as Nobuyoshi Araki or
Daido Moriyama.