Shashin: are-bure-boke

It is more than 10 years since Michael Hoppen Gallery's first Japanese photography exhibition Eyes of an Island. Since then the gallery has cemented its relationship with Japan and now holds one of the most important and extensive collections of post-war Japanese photography outside of Asia. We are proud to represent many important Japanese artists and estates and continue to play a key role in introducing Japanese photography to major museum collections and collectors.

 

Shashin: are-bure-boke is not a reprise of the gallery's earlier show but rather an offering across both floors that will introduce a new public to some of Japan's most important post-war photographers as well as lesser-known artists whose work we admire. The title of the exhibition - the Japanese word for 'photograph' followed by the description applied to the radical new visual style of the Provoke photographers, recognises the huge reach and significance of the Provoke generation.

 

The exhibition encompasses a range of photographic techniques - from Kazuma Ogawa's collotypes of Noh actors made in the late 19th century to Sohei Nishino's recent diorama map of Tokyo, which combines analogue photography, collage and digital printing. It will be an opportunity to relish Miyako Ishiuchi's distinctive hand-made silver gelatin prints alongside Masatoshi Naito's disturbing vision of Tokyo's underbelly, as well as prints by key masters such as Nobuyoshi Araki or Daido Moriyama.