I’m working to post some things that I should have posted weeks earlier (this being one of them).

The Jist was that I read this blog “neojaponisme” fairly often.. Well.. what I should say is that it’s in my Google Reader which is sorta like the same thing as what’s in my ipod (A bit of everything). Regardless– I have a keen sense or awareness of anytime a reference is made to Portland, Or. or (shock) Vancouver, Wa. **My origins** Thus when reading this post in Neojaponisme I felt “compelled” to atleast check it out and comment if I felt abliged (and I did).

The event, if you could call it that, was more of a display of a private collection of photos one of the bloggers of Neojaponisme owns and shipped to a local outfit (bookstore) in Downtown Portland. The Synopsis of the collection was that the owner had bought a collection of old photos from an antique store and discovered something special about them… “nothing.” It was a collection of photos from a rare era often missed in Japan when “old” was slowly meshing with “modernity” and the crop up of small “Sashin-ya” (i’m totally guessing that word btw) or Photo Studios were appearing in street corners all around Tokyo.

What’s interesting about this collection was that they appear to be ‘low budget’ portraits of a somewhat raw, but experimental type of commercial photography. In a way, this photos revealed (to me at least) a mutual sharing of art where the subject would get his or her photograph and the photographer could experiment with his camera, lighting, perhaps angles or the arrangement of his subjects…

Certainly the photos are contrast to modern photography found in museums like the MET or the Japanese National Museum where art from this particular era is polished and extremely professional– perhaps “fake” in it’s appearance?  Whatever the case– the second subject of interest is the characters in the pictures. 

Remember at the turn of the 20th century Japan underwent a tremendous shock in it’s system in which Japanese were being exposed to foreign culture directly rather then indirectly (via “dutch studies”).

As a side note on this display it’s very intriguing to ponder all the angles and thoughts of both artists and subjects.. As I mentioned in a previous blog I’m starting the book The Great Wave- Guilded Age misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Japan by Christopher Benfey– a book writing about this period or one very near it.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the pics.. And if anyone from Neojaponisme reads this by any chance.. I want to say that I really appeciated your pictures and your essays..

As a second note the exhibit officially ended today at Reading Frenzy which apparently someone at the Neojaponisme blog worked at… (according to the clerk).

~Josh

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