Tomatsu Shomei

There is a huge retrospective of the photographer Tomatsu Shomei going on at the Nagoya City Museum of Art. In conjunction with that, a trialogue (the word doesn't exist in English, I know) was held Saturday with the photographer himself, his long-time buddy Nakahira Takuma, and Kuraishi Shino, my colleague and critic.

It was very interesting. Tomatsu who lives currently in Okinawa couldn't participate because of his health problem. Kuraishi was as lucid as possible and did most of the talking. Then Nakahira, the great Nakahira, pronounced not a word... just nodded everything away.

I was moved. By his gesture he showed us two simple truths: that photography remains in the realm of the unspeakable, and that everything about photography should be treated with a big YES.

I recommend the exhibition to anybody who even remotely is interested in photography...

By the way the above trialogue took place at the Naka Ward Hall. The very place I as a high schooler gave a concert with my band: The Cracked! in 1974. At that time the future, this future, which means NOW, was utterly out of sight...

After so many days

I have not written here for such a long time but now I am resuming it. Japan as we know it has turned a different country since 11 March. People are suffering in the Northeast, the beautiful and poor. There is nothing I can do to help the region, but we are preparing a book as a token of our solidarity.

It is conceived as a collection of short texts (poems, stories, and essays) to be read aloud in small groups around a candle light. More than 20 writers have agreed to join this project. All the sales will be donated to the people of the damaged area through a NPO.

The book will be ready in July, hopefully.