I had planned to write a long piece for today.
28 days after the disaster that struck Japan on March 11th.
But……..
littleblackheart
“There is no crime of which I cannot conceive myself guilty”
Today’s quote from Goethe and an iPhone pic.
Tokyo Update 28/3/11 – Focus
An update from Tokyo 28/3/11, my thoughts on the evolving situation.
DFocus and DMount, Finally! – Unimpressed with jag35.com
My experience of ordering a follow focus from jag35.com.Unimpressed!
Tokyo Update 20/3/11
Tokyo is gradually returning to normal, or as normal as it ever was. A roudup of whats happening/being said 20/3/11
I Long To Be Invisible Again
5D in for repair? (*see note below)
No problem, shoot loads of clips using your iPhone 3GS , edit them together in Premiere Pro with some music from your old band and voila a music / personal confession video.
Music – “Plinky One” – The Hawkline Orchestra
(That’s me on guitar that is – and the fantastic singer Rochelle Vincente, now of Product/01 )
*5D mk II mode dial broke off in my hand a few weeks ago. Took it to the Canon service center, 19,000Y ($220 U.S. ish) to repair or 10,500Y ($120 U.S. ish) to replace the dial with the new locking mode dial.
WTF?
New locking mode dial thanks, oh….but that’ll take 2 weeks!! f%&k what am I going to do without a camera!!!!*
DISCLAIMER: This video was filmed and this blog post was written before the events of 11/3/11 in Japan and the subsequent disaster that struck the country. I am publishing it now in an effort to return to some kind of normality.
Tokyo Update 17/3/11
Tokyo Update 17/3/11, empty shelves, geiger counters and scary dreams.
Tokyo Update 15/3/11
*This update is mainly for friends outside Japan – apologies to followers of the blog in Japan – nothing new here*
Japan Earthquake 11/3/11
Just a very quick update.
Me and everyone I know is fine.
I was up on the 19th Floor during the quake which was a little scary ;-) but basically here in Tokyo, all is pretty much well.
Our thoughts go out to those in the north-east of Japan who are suffering far more.
The nuclear reactor problem in Fukushima is more than a little scary, but basically it is disturbingly normal here.
The frequent aftershocks are pretty scary too, even as I write this the building shakes!!
Thanks for all your emails.
follow me on twitter for up to the minute information @uchujinphoto
Modelling for Yuko Goto and Yojiro Terasawa
A couple of weeks ago I modelled for my make-up artist friend Yuko Goto at Docan design studio in Tama center.
The photographer was Yojiro Terasawa.
(why do neither of these guys have their own websites???)
I’ve worked with Yuko before and it is always a pleasure.
I hadn’t worked with Yojiro but he was also a really nice guy to work with.
Anyway enough blather, here are some of the pictures.
2nd Annual ‘Fragments of Tokyo’ Exhibition
Jon Ellis, Dairou Koga, Thomas Orand and Toshiya Watanabe are having another of their fantastic ‘Fragments Of Tokyo’ Exhibitions at Place M in Shinjuku from 14th-20th March.
UPDATE-Copyright Infringement Again! – Groove Magazine Germany
Well, well, well……
It’s like a massage with a happy ending, I got what I wanted but I feel a bit dirty having got there ;-)
Ta-da!!! I got paid!
Only my usual rate for the pictures and nothing for the copyright infringement, but payment none the less.
Celebrating The Assassination Of Inejiro Asanuma-October 12th 1960, Tokyo
On October 12th 1960 Inejiro Asanuma the head of the Japanese socialist party was assasinated by ultra-rightist Otoya Yamaguchi during a televised rally.50 years later Right wing groups celebrated the assasination and Yamaguchi’s suicide.
1 in 13 million – The only native Japanese Imam in Tokyo (UPDATED)
*Updated with NEW film documentary for VICE Japan – see end of post*
Population of Japan – 127,000,000
Population of Tokyo – 13,000,000
No. of Muslims in Japan (estimate) – 100,000
No. of Japanese Muslims (estimate) – 10,000
No. who converted to Islam NOT for marriage(estimate) – 2 or 300
No. of Japanese Imam’s in Japan – 5
No. of Japanese Imam’s in Tokyo – 1
Abdullah Taqy is the only Japanese Imam in Tokyo.
A chance meeting with a foreign Muslim 12 years ago in Tokyo’s Shibuya district and a life spent studying various religions led him to convert to Islam 3½ years ago.
He completed the Hajj, the worlds largest annual religious pilgrimage, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia 2½ years ago at the invitation of the Saudi Arabian government.
Shortly after, a meeting with the man who started him down his path to Islam 12 years previously led him to becoming the Imam at a small mosque in the Kabukicho area of Tokyo.
His day job for the past 20 years has been as a tattooist and body piercer.
He is soft-spoken and exudes a calmness and friendliness that one cannot help being affected by.
He is truly, 1 in 13 million.
Photography, Audio & Editing – Uchujin/Adrian Storey
I am very pleased to announce that some of the photographs from this photofilm and the photofilm itself are available for licencing through Redux Pictures – HERE
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This project is the culmination of several months of work and religious freedom is a topic I personally feel very strongly about.
The news last year of the Tokyo Police’s leaking of data on to the internet about Muslim residents (Japantimes link) and Abdullah’s own questioning by the Police because of his religion highlight that Muslims all over the world face persecution and prejudice.
Part of my intention in making this photofilm/documentary was to highlight the absurdity of these prejudices.
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*UPDATE December 2012*
I am pleased to add my new short film documentary about Abdullah, shot in Novemeber 2012 for VICE Japan almost 2 years after the original film was made.
I hope you enjoy it!!!
Twende Berlin Documentary Trailer
I’m very pleased to present the “Twende Berlin” documentary trailer.
Out take – id and ego?
Out take – id and ego? Just a photo.Simple.
Dead Man Walking
Music:-
‘Seaside’ by Decipher (a previous nom de plume of mine)
2010 WTF?
There’ll be no moratorium, no “it was a year of up’s and down’s” or any other nonsense.The final post of 2010.
The Kibera Olympic Boxing Team
I recently traveled to Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya – the largest and most well-known slum in Africa, home to over a million people most of whom live on less than a dollar a day – to meet Mr. Hassan Abdul Salim, the coach of the ‘Kibera Olympic Boxing Team’.
Akaenda Berlin – Part 2 – People
As with most things, despite my professed misanthropy and a firm belief that Jean Paul Sartre was right when he said “Hell is other people”, people are what makes this cosmic joke we call existence bareable.
Akaenda Berlin – Part 1 – Graffiti
Berlin, how do I love thee? let me count the ways!
One of the first things that stuck me about Berlin was the Graffiti and street art.
E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!!!
Shinjuku To Harajuku On The Yamanote Line
A little video I’d forgotten about from when I borrowed the 15mm from Mr Eiichi Scart.
Mr Ellis reminded me of it on the very same route home after GnT’s last night, so here it is.
(Also wanted to post a little something as I’ve been away filming in Berlin for a few weeks and haven’t had time to edit any of that stuff yet, but it’s coming. Watch this space.)
Music by me from long,long ago
Oya-Part 3-The Abandoned Building Cliche
I have a dirty little secret…..
Ok I have more than one, but the one I’m admitting to today, feels in photographic circles worse than admitting you like Justin Bieber at a Carcass concert.
I love abandoned buildings.
There is a strange quiet, yet nervous feeling that can only be achieved by ignoring a “do not enter” sign, climbing over a fence and finding yourself in a decaying building alone in the dying rays of the setting sun.
(season with autumn leaves for extra feeling of inevitable passing of time to taste)
It’s hard to explain to anyone who has never had the pleasure, but it is one of those victimless crimes that provokes clammy palms and a sense of ones mortality, that the other victimless crimes do but with much easier to deal with day afters.
So, it was with no small excitement that walking along after finding ourselves with an hour to wait for a boondocks bus after visiting Oya temple we came across an urban explorers wet dream, an abandoned building with no fence and a sign in a language I could pretend not to be able to read.
Cue kid in a sweet shop face and a perfect 30 minutes of clammy palms and a sense of my own mortality.
In case you missed them:- Oya-Part 1 and Oya-Part 2
Oya-Part 2-Heiwa Kannon and the 1200 year old 1000 armed Chenrezig
A short walk from the Oya stone museum, is Oya temple and the massive Heiwa Kannon.
Oya-Part 1-Oya stone museum
Oya in Tochigi is an hour and a bit train ride from central Tokyo to Utsunomiya and then a short bus ride away.
Recently I took a trip out there on a rare day where my wife and I’s day off’s coincided.
The main reason for our visit was to go to the Oya stone museum, of which there is suprisingly little written about on them there interwebs.
Oya stone is famous as the building material Frank Llyod Wright chose for the old Imperial Hotel in Tokyo’s Hibiya district. The Great Kanto Earthquake struck on the day of the celebrations for the completion of the Imperial Hotel, but the building survived.
Oya stone is only found in an area 4 kilometers east-west by 6 kilometers north-south around Oya, but there are reserves of some 600 million tons.
During World War II, this cavern was used as a military storehouse. It was also used as a secret underground factory for Nakajima Aircraft Co. and Zero fighters were built there.
In the reconstruction period after World War II, it was used to build stone walls and housing complexes throughout Japan. In the 1970s, about 120 companies mined nearly 900,000 tons a year. But demand plummeted when concrete became popular. Now 12 companies mine only about 24,000 tons a year.
It is now used for concerts and for making films due to its excellent acoustics. It is also a popular place for storing fruit and ham and for aging sake and wine.
The museum is located in the remains of the underground mine where Oya stone was cut.
It’s impressively cavernous and is cold (its a big cave-of course it’s cold-the average temperature is 8 degrees) and, even with the lighting put up for the tourists, Dark – most of the photos I shot were at 3200iso and a second or more exposure.
It’s well worth a visit if you find yourself in Utsunomiya.
Thanks to the Asahi Shimbun (you won’t hear me say that often;-) for information on Oya stone museum.
*Oya-part 2 and Oya-Part 3*