TokyoLand

Thoughts of a Tokyo, Japan-based editorial corporate portrait assignments photographer

16/05/2012
by Jeremy
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An afternoon with George Wyllie.

George Wyllie, MBE, Scottish scul?tor, artist and social commentator, has passed away aged 90. Born in 1921, he died yesterday evening in hospital in Scotland. You can read about the life and times of George, and his art and work, here on the website The Whysman.

I had the pleasure of meeting the man twice, back in the days when I was photographing 3 or 4 days a week for The Sunday Times. I had an assignment one afternoon to go to Gourock, down the water from Glasgow, and shoot a portrait of George. I was always interested in art, so an assignment like that would be one I’d enjoy. I photographed George down by the waterside, I don’t remember how that came about, but he stood out on a little wharf, the wind blustering, generous with his time. I must have shot the image in colour for the paper, but also ran a roll of black and white through the Leica for myself…


George Wyllie MBE, The Whysman, 1921-2012. ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2001, All Rights Reserved.

After the shoot was over we went to a local pub, and sat drinking Guinness (just a Half for me as I was driving). We talked of art and artists, and somehow I was invited back to George’s home, perhaps I gave him a lift home, where he gave me a gift of an Andy Warhol ‘Cow’ carrier bag from an exhibition, (I was a fan of Warhol work at the time) and he signed it “This is not by me, George”. Days or weeks later I got a call from him, “could he have the bag back please?”. It had been give to him and he felt wrong to have given it away. Of course I gave him it back, and drove down the coast to see him again and return it. And generously in return he gave me a print of one of his works, which now sits framed in my home.

It is sad news to read of his passing, a great artist, a kind man. I’m glad to have a memory of having met him.

15/05/2012
by Jeremy
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More mirrors…

So yesterday The Guardian ran my mirrored building kaleidoscope-like image in their Eyewitness pages, across 2 pages in the actual paper, and today I awake to find my agents have moved the image again and overnight in USA the same image appeared on the MSNBC photoblog website (see it here.). Seems the picture may have a bit of a life, I’m sure it’ll pop up in other places also. I hope.

15/05/2012
by Jeremy
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Refreshing…

It’s been overdue, but finally I’ve got round to tinkering with my website, making a few changes, adding a few new images, taking down some I’ve decided don’t make the grade any more. I’ve even added a new gallery called ‘Magnitude9 Level7′ with photographs from this past difficult year in Japan, in the aftermath of the Magnitude 9 earthquake, tsunami and Level7 nuclear disaster.

These are not huge changes, but some little ones. Please if you have a few minutes take a look, and if there is anything that catches your eye which you like or don’t like, then please feel free to let me know by emailing me here . It’s always great to hear peoples thoughts about your my/your/one’s work. You can reach my website of (portrait editorial assignment photographer in Tokyo, Japan) here.

I’ve also refreshed the stories and sets of images which are on my archive homepage. From here you can dip in, at your own leisure, through many many images and stories. In light of my archive hosts, Photoshleter, making some recent and slightly complicated “upgrades”, there may be other changes coming to my site in near future. But for the time being it has been refreshed and you can access it by clicking Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert photography archive, Tokyo, Japan.

14/05/2012
by Jeremy
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Mirror image…

If you’re in the UK today please buy a newspaper. And in particular please buy The Guardian, and check out the crazy kaleidoscope-like image I have on today’s Eyewitness pages. The photograph shows the imaginatively, snappily named ‘Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku’ shopping mall here in sunny Tokyo, Japan.

Designed by Hiroshi Nakamura, the entrance to the shopping complex, full of American brand names and Japanese domestic brand shops, is a multi-surfaced mirror, reflecting the non-stop consumerism of Japanese shoppers a multitude of times. It’s hard not to be able to take an interesting photograph of it, and I’m sure in time, it’ll become a much photographed scene which we’ll see regularly in magazines and books. Another icon of Tokyo architecture and of the city. ( Click here for a better quality version of the photograph of ‘Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku’ mirror entrance.)

But for today the image in the paper is mine, and I’m pleased it’s been used across the Guardian’s Eyewitness section pages, a place where you can regularly find great images from across the world.

Tokyo Plaza Omotesando Harajuku, Japan

Click here for a better quality version of the photograph of ‘Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku’ mirror entrance.

07/05/2012
by Jeremy
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Rainy Day Women

Yesterday I found myself in the very unusual position of being in a Bob Dylan song. From 1966. Well, sort of.


Butoh dancers against nuclear power, Tokyo, Japan, 2012. ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2012, all rights reserved.

It’s been a busy ol’ time as an editorial assignment photographer working in Tokyo, Japan, covering many demonstrations as of late for clients. The anti-nuclear protests seem to be coming at the rate of one every few days. This weekend was no exception, with a rally on Saturday prior to the Tomari nuclear plant in Hokkaido being taken offline, leaving Japan with none of it’s 50 reactors online or producing energy. And then yesterday in Tokyo’s Koenji district, an area known for it’s hippy tendencies, there was a ‘Nuclear free Japan celebration parade’, which I thought I’d attend, and try for more images.

And jeez, was it it a bit mad. The whole thing started at three o’clock fast. Clowns, girls in bikinis, drums of fury, a Mexican in a sombrero, two dragons, Che Guevara, belly dancers and a few hundred police, all were in attendance. All in a carnival mood, except the police. And then bang on cue, as the parade was beginning to move off the rain began to fall, a hard rain in many ways. There was a sudden decision to make, stay in the open and shoot images, or seek shelter from the storm? I chose the later, the afternoon was young, and there was no need to get seriously wet, or the cameras broken. The rain was coming in horizontal sheets.

And for the next hour it was stop and start, the procession stopped and started, the tropical thunderstorms stopped and started, (and sadly I was to find out later, turned into a typhoon in Ibaraki north of Tokyo, wrecking homes and killing one young boy). But the rain didn’t deter the belly dancers, who shimmied and shaked along the streets, protected from the traffic by a battalion of stony faced police.


Belly dancers against nuclear power, Tokyo, Japan, 2012. ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2012, all rights reserved.

The Drums of Fury beat a mean rhythm to their anti-nuclear chants, their faces covered against the rain, and from the police cameras. In another section of the parade an old man pushed his zimmer frame whilst chanting his anti-nuclear message quietly. Near him  families walked with their children who blew bubbles. A man dressed as a crocodile, or perhaps it was Godzilla, stood on the pavement taking photos. And way down in front some clowns carried a dancing dragon, whilst a woman painted white and wearing only a bikini danced beside her friend in a red wispy dress, a type of dance I can only describe as Japanese butoh, even thought I’m not really sure what Butoh consists of.


Butoh dancers against nuclear power, Tokyo, Japan, 2012. ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2012, all rights reserved.

The music was loud and continuous, from the band on the back of a truck, to the mobile karaoke van with people stepping up to shout their anti-nuclear sentiments and then launch into their favourite songs. A man wearing a tambourine around his neck beat a drumstick on an old saucepan, the repetitive tin tin tin denting his pan nicely in one spot. Nearby a man played a flute and another hit a gong.

Finally the parade reached it’s destination, and the beat rose to a crescendo, the dragons and koi carp danced in the park, as a yukata-clad man waved an Edo period flag with a 21st century message on it. The protesters filed in, a Mexican band man wearing a sombrero came in past the yellow faced mudman, and the beautiful girl with the red ribbons in her hair. The Butoh dancers ran ecstatically around, whilst the jokers and clowns jumped and caroused. The guitars played as the skirts swayed.


Penny whistle player against nuclear power, Tokyo, Japan, 2012. ©Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2012, all rights reserved.

The parade was over, vintage protest Dylan it wasn’t, more like being in Blonde On Blonde. The weather had been tumultuous and the anti-nuclear sentiments were obvious, and the last reactor had been turned off. It had all been quite evident that in Koenji you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.