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Caught in the twilight

Ginza, Tokyo, April 10, 2004: click for larger image

Ginza, Tokyo, April 10, 2004. Bessa R2, CV 35mm f/2.5 ‘Pancake’. Fuji Neopan 400 Presto.

Not quite sure how it happened, but the above photo (click on it for a larger view) won the most recent Salon held biweekly over at the Street Photography Mailing List, the theme of which was “twilight.” While in the short past that I’ve been entering the Salons I’d no doubt felt a tinge of disappointment when previous entries had been passed over, I always felt greater relief, for no other reason than that I didn’t relish the idea of having to judge a whole bunch of photos myself. (The Salon winner selects the theme for the next Salon, and then sits in judgement of the entries for that theme, with commentary about each expected.) So much for that now! In case you’re interested, I’ve selected “engagement” as the next theme. Photos are due Monday, May 10th.

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The ever ephemeral sakura

Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo, March 29, 2004; click for gallery

Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo, March 29, 2004. Bessa R2, CV 35mm f/2.5 ‘Pancake’, Fuji Acros 100.

Better late than never, here is a gallery of cherry blossom photos if you’re interested. I made a conscious decision this year to try to capture the ephemeral blossoms in black and white. Not sure how successful this attempt was, but you be the judge. I was partly inspired by the B/W sakura photos of a Japanese photographer by the name of K-Funk (see the three different “sakura” galleries on this page). I did take some color photos, but decided to leave them out of the gallery (you can see one online here).

Without living here in Japan it is really hard to comprehend just how much everything revolves around the blossoms for the one or two weeks they bloom, not to mention all the predicting and tracking of the blossoms that occurs on the nightly news, numerous web sites, and several special edition magazines in the weeks leading up to the actual blossoming. Finding a Japanese person who’s apathetic toward the blossoms is about as hard as finding one who will say on record that they love the rain — in other words, good luck.

The Japanese concept of mono no aware (simplistically, the impermanence of things) is often mentioned in the context of the cherry blossoms. But some students of mine, they of an older generation, taught me a heretofore unknown adjective when they tried to explain the appeal of the blossoms: isagiyoi. The dictionaries define this as “gracious” or “sportsmanlike,” but perhaps we can say “accepting defeat gracefully.” These students couldn’t help adding that this was a word seldom used to describe today’s younger generation.

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The presence of your absence is strongly felt

Ginza, Tokyo, March 7, 2004

Ginza, Tokyo, March 7, 2004. Bessa R2, CV 35mm, f/2.5 “P”, Ilford HP5+.

My entry for the current Street Photography Mailing List Salon (click photo for a larger view, and to get to my other Salon entries these last few months). This Salon’s theme is the rather long-winded but cunning “The presence of your absence is strongly felt.” What exactly does that mean? Well, of course you need only look at my photo and the answer will be clear! But seriously, one never really knows what each Salon’s adjudicator has in mind when he/she comes up with these things, which I suppose adds to the fun and helps to keep the entries varied and interesting. Ironically, there seems to be less variation on the theme this Salon than in the past. Perhaps the theme wasn’t so inscrutable after all. The current Salon has yet to be decided but you can see the entries via this page.