Do you remember 1999 ? The year of Neo writhing about with Agent Smith on the subways, the Euro got launched, and plain old Alex Ferguson from Govan became Sir Alex Ferguson on the back of leading Man U to a famous treble. It wasn’t all good news though, Cliff Richard’s ‘Millennium Prayer’ topped the UK singles charts and the Russian and Japanese economies were in tatters as we all waited with baited breath for the turn of the new millennium that Cliff spouted out about in his own sickly manner. Meanwhile in amongst this mix of Matrix’s, new currencies, football legend making and anticipation of change, from Japan sprung a new book from photographic phenomenon and teen idol - Hiromix.

Not that I knew anything about it, I was slaving away on the groundbreaking ‘Management Applications of Complexity Theory’ :) thesis for my Masters and wasn’t the least interested in photography anyway. So where did this Hiromix Tokyo stuff come from? Well, about two years ago I wandered into the Tokyo Metropolitan Photography Museum and there was this large display which it turned out was the winner of some Canon sponsored award and it was a retrospective of Hiromix. This is interesting because, when I wandered around and looked at it, I had no idea that this was from the last millennium, I thought it had all been shot recently with an iPhone !!! This will give you some indication of what the subject of this weeks review is like, its to the best of my knowledge one of the originators of the selfie and ‘my life diaries’ trend that we now take so for-granted. To be honest, as I wandered around looking at the shots of selfie Hiromix in pyjamas, selfie Hiromix in no pyjamas, Hiromix’s breakfast cereal, Hiromix’s friends, Hiromix with no pyjamas again, I didn’t know quite what to make of it all. I had that niggling feeling that I hated this stuff but somehow it intrigued me so I walked around again (having developed a bit of a liking for Hiromix with no pyjamas) and I stopped hating the photography but I couldn’t say I liked it. Anyway, I made a subconscious mental note about this and every time I visit Tokyo I have a hunt around for one of her books, to date with no avail, however, a few weeks back I came across a ‘very good’ condition version of Hiromix Tokyo and decided to give it a go and it turned up this week, just in perfect time for this review.

Before I start giving my view on Hiromix Tokyo, a quick word about how to re-calibrate bookshop grading scales by using the ‘Steel comparitor’ The comparitor is unique in that its more truthful and gives a much better indication of actual condition and its so simple to apply. All you have to do is remove the word good and replace it with ‘worn’ and in inverse of what you would expect a ‘very good’ rating would become ‘very worn’ its as simple as that.

Ok, now that grump is out of the way, lets look at Hiromix and her photography. This is actually not as easy as it sounds because most people become wrapped up in the Hiromix, quirky, sexy, persona and hype and don’t actually give the book that much attention as a piece of photographic work and I am going to put my cards on the table right now and say that I think that is a real shame, this is very decent stuff.

I am betting that some of you reading this now that have been photographers for a long time will probably know a lot more about Hiromix than me, so I want to make it clear here that I am looking at this photo book as new, with a fresh set of eyes and for better or for worse, completely unaffected by all the hype that went with her around 20 years ago when she sprung on the photography scene after support from Araki. Its all to easy to contextualise Hiromix in 90’s Japan of economic woe, a strange new trend towards the spending power and increasing independence of young girls in the previously male dominated culture and a thirst for quirky new diversions. Forget this though, and even forget that this comes from Japan and flick the pages and there is a fun feel tinged with a little bit of uncertainty (much as you would expect from a teenager) Here is Hiromix’s own introduction to the book and I think it says it all:

YOUTH REFLECTS TRANSPARENCY AND BEAUTY.
DESPITE OUR LACK OF EXPERIENCE THE WORLD OFTEN CONFRONTS US WITH UNFORGIVABLE SITUATIONS.
WE BELIEVE MORE THAN ANYONE IN THINGS THAT CANNOT BE SEEN.
MANY UNKNOWN WORLDS ARE AWAITING US.
SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE AND THINGS WE LOVE.
WE SMILE CAREFREE SMILES.

IT WAS PERHAPS BECAUSE I WANTED TO KEEP A RECORD OF THIS THAT I TAKE PHOTOS OF MYSELF.

1998-7-15 HIROMIX

How cool is that? The voice of a generation…………

As you would perhaps expect of this period, the photos in this book were shot I believe with a simple point and shoot film camera and the prints have that nice very slightly washed out colour trademark of that period. This is of course one of the effects that people now strive for in their Instagram shots and that is one of the remarkable things that I find about the book, there are almost no clues that would make you think that this wasn’t shot with a phone yesterday, its as contemporary as that for me. I also like the full bleed printing and the sequencing, which although often predictable, is still fun and that aligns very well with the intent of the book as described by Hiromix herself.

As I said earlier, its all to easy to dismiss this as twee, but I think if you give it a fair chance you will appreciate that Hiromix is pretty accomplished at what she does and her skills (which I don’t think ever get acknowledged enough) are very much there and evident in many of the shots.

Where the book doesn’t work so well for me is that it lacks a certain hint of mystery, and if I can cast my mind back into the distant past to when I was that age, I don’t recall it all being such plain sailing as this (albeit that was in a shitty housing scheme in Glasgow’s South Side) and there was definitely a side to that time in life that is not touched on or even suggested here. I also think that the ‘selfies’ are overdone. Not that Hiromix is unpleasant to look at of course but it is an aspect that dominates to much for me and I find myself more interested when she shows me her thoughts on her environment than her face.

Given the above statement around my feeling that something is missing here, I recall an excellent Alan Yentob programme where he researched into the phenomenon of Japanese reclusive author Murakami and he discovered that to this day many teenage Japanese males enrol in the same university as portrayed in his classic ‘Norwegian Wood’ novel, apparently in the belief that they too would experience some of the drama that Murakami’s protagonist Watanabe came across as he struggled to emerge from his teenage years. This is the same feeling that I get here, there is some teenage idealism in here that is just not quite real and maybe that is part of the attraction for many of Hiromix’s book buying public. For what its worth by the way, I have no idea what Watanabe was thinking about hanging in there with the looney Naoko when ultra sexy Midori was there for the taking (just saying……)
Ok, so what is it to be, quirky, sexy but vacant Tokyo chick or serious photographer who has created a unique take on her world? Hmm, beginning to wish I hadn’t asked that question of myself but here goes anyway, I think this is a very likeable and possibly groundbreaking book that, despite my qualified reservations, is up there as a must have in anyones photo book collection. This style and concept has been replicated and is being reproduced every day now by the millions of people now shooting with phones but very few ever get near to this level of originality and honesty and I think it is this unselfconsciousness and simple beauty that lifts this book way above the rest.

Incidentally, I would love to hear what my Japanese friends have to say about Hiromix, what about it guys?

Free Art

Just before I move onto the zine section with Part 2 of Kitajima’s Photo Express Tokyo, it occurred to me that I talk all of the time about photo-books that I have bought when I also have a little side collection going that costs nothing at all. I have developed a habit of collecting promotional flyers from galleries that I visit and this is piling up to become quite substantial and I thought it might be nice to share a few pieces each week just as a reminder that we don’t always have to buy expensive photo books to enjoy printed art.

Pretty neat huh?

Kitajima’s Photo Express Tokyo Part 2

Here is part 2 of Kitajima’s ‘zine’s’ that we looked at last week and you will probably recall that its part of a box set of pamphlet style catalogues that were produced in support of his 1979 CAMP exhibitions in Tokyo. It goes without saying that these are a great contrast to Hiromix work that I looked at earlier and indeed it pre-dates her book by some 20 years. I never fail to be amazed at the creativity of Japanese photographers and much of what they did was rule-breaking and entirely original.

Something I forgot to mention last week was that there is actually a thirteenth zine in the boxed set and it gives a brief insight into the exhibition process and also has some incredible shots from the shows themselves, I will of course include this one at the end of the run on these zines. What is very interesting is that there is a brief explanation of how Kitajima created the shows and ultimately the work that you see here. It seems that this was almost done in real time with him taking shots, processing the films and making the prints using his hi-contrast method that apparently involved a fair bit of randomness that all added to the fun.

Apart from the shots that I have showcased here, I am not quite taken with this zine as I am with some of the others. The problem I mentioned last week around the content having to be really strong haunts a few of the shots in this one with the choice of weaker subject matter that then has to be forced through the high contrast effect and it doesn’t come off very well. I did also mention last week how close I find some of Kitajima’s work to Jacob Au Sobol’s in form and I know that Jacob spent some time in Japan and in fact produced the very wonderful I Tokyo book there. Have a look at this last shot and see what you think.

Fave Photo Lucas Foglia

I thought very long and hard about this one because its very popular and there are many reviews of his wonderful book Front Country so it didn’t seem to me that I could add much to what has already been said. I did have another shot by one of my favourite photographers already in here and I removed in favour of this one, simply on the basis that it is another nice contrast to the other work that I have shown today. The photo of the coyote shooter, as I mentioned, comes from Lucas ‘s marvellous Front Country book and this has received very wide acclaim and may even turn up in a few ‘best of 2014’ lists at the year end, and deservedly so. I have to say that I can’t attach any of the deeper meanings that I find in other fave shots to this one but it is without doubt a beautiful image, the strangeness, the balancing, the ‘what the heck is he doing?’ factor, the vista landscape and the fence and post all combine perfectly with the balancing shooter to create an intriguing and very nice photo that in many ways encapsulates much of what Lucas is about with the rest of his book. The book is shot in the American ranching heartlands and contrasts a change that is taking place between the traditional uses of the land for cattle and the new industries that have sprung up around mining. I won’t spoil the book for you and its a great piece of work so go have a look. The photo I choose from the book is a great example of what Lucas is capable of and his sensitive treatment of the tensions and balancing act that is going on between ranching and mining is I believe a classic and very representative of challenges that many people are facing between the steady pay check and the risks of perhaps doing something you love.

Well thats just about it for this week, just want to close by saying that I have found and ordered two Hiromix books (girls blue and Paris) from Martin Amis at photo bookstore uk and I must say I trust Martin much more than the random Amazon sellers so here is hoping, he has never let me down yet. These books are surprisingly tricky to track down so if you are in book buying mode, why not? Incidentally, if you like handmade Japanese photo books as much as I do why not check out Yumi Goto’s collection at Reminders Photography Stronghold?

See you next week and I will let Hiromix fittingly close this week……

Colin Steel, Sunday 5th October, Singapore