Part2: Strange Lands

Photographer’s Sentimental Journey

Jul. 18—Sep. 23, 2009

• Jul. 18—Sep. 23, 2009
• Closed Monday (Tuesday if Monday is a national holiday)
• Admission：Adults ￥500（400）／College Students ￥400（320）／High School and Junior High School Students, Over 65 ￥250（200）

Travel and photography have been closely intertwined from the dawn of photography in the nineteenth century. Since the camera and photographic process reached Japan’s shores in the closing years of the Tokugawa shogunate, travel-related photography, undertaken from many perspectives, has proliferated. The Travel exhibition explores works in a wide variety of styles through three approaches with distinct points of view, unfolding in a three-part series over the course of about six months.
The second in this series introduces a large body of work produced by the postwar generation of
Japanese photographers in the 1970s and 1980s. These selections from the museum’s collection are a
magnificent group of photographic gems, including both widely known, iconic images by famous
photographers and masterpieces of acute observation known only to a discerning few.
Please note that each of the three parts of the series is intended to stand on its own. Visitors who were
unable to see the first part can fully enjoy the second.

“Discover Japan and Rediscover Yourself,” and photographers did. Through travel, they discovered a new Japan while searching for styles and approaches that would be distinctively their own. The sights they photographed included not only famous tourist destinations but also obscure spots deep in the mountains that almost no one ever visited as well as ordinary street scenes. In this section, the exhibition explores what these photographers were looking for in their journeys--and what they found. The exhibition is tentatively planned to include about 150 works.

1. Rediscovering the self through the relationship between photography and travel What were the 1970s like? At the same time that Japan National Railways launched its “Discover Japan” campaign in 1970, a new travel program, I Want to Go Somewhere Far Away, appeared on television, and the women’s magazine an•an was launched, to be followed by Non-No the next year. Their readers, labelled the “An-Non Tribe,” were young women who enjoyed traveling by themselves or in small groups. A new travel format was born, one that represented a considerable change from family
and company group travel, which had previously been the norm. Overlapping the world travel boom was striking activity in the world of photography, with extensive  work whose theme was travel. Far from leaping on the travel boom bandwagon, however, these photographers, educated after the war and active during Japan’s years of rapid economic growth, were
moving beyond the conventional rubric of photography in search of styles and visions through which they would “rediscover themselves,” much as the Japan National Railways urged in “Discover Japan and Rediscover Yourself.” These photographers viewed the changes and anxieties of the new society with the alert eye of the bystander. They shot from very individual perspectives, rather than simply recording scenes. What to photograph, why, and for whom: far from photographing their “travel” as documentary or as tourism, these photographers traveled with no particular spot or objective in mind as they explored  the relationships between photography, self, and society.

2. Enjoy about 150 photographs–from iconic images by famous photographers to masterpieces known only to a discerning few!
This exhibition presents work by nine photographers, from famous names such as Araki Nobuyoshi and Moriyama Daido to artists known only to serious photography buffs. Most notably, it offers a rare opportunity to see a comprehensive group of work, in a museum setting, by the late Yanagisawa Shin, who died last year. In addition to introducing the work of Akiyama Ryoji and Kitai Kazuo, for whom opportunities to be included in exhibitions have been few, this show also offers a first glimpse of work by Suda Issei that was added to the collection in 2008. From lovers of photography to those interested in history and travel, this exhibition’s rich menu of delights is not to be missed.

3. Prints from the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography collection All the photographs in this exhibition are masterworks selected from the museum’s collection of over 25,000 photographs. The exhibition offers an extensive introduction to the photographers and works in the collection while presenting a splendid opportunity to give careful appreciation to the beauty of original prints.

 
荒木経惟　「センチメンタルな旅」より　1971年