February 23, 2010   44 notes
Simon Yotsuya, 1971. Photo by Eikoh Hosoe. simon-yotsuya.net: The Prelude of Yotsuya Simon, a portfolio of photographs by Hosoe Eikoh, is an interesting collaborative effort between Hosoe and Simon as model. It may be considered simultaneously both a treatise on landscape and a treatise on the body. Prior to this work, Hosoe had published Kamaitachi, his masterful book of photographs of Hijikata Tatsumi, the originator of Ankoku Butoh (Dance of Darkness), taken against a background of scenes from a farming village in northeastern Japan. The photographs in his work with Simon were taken with the same concept in mind, this time with Tokyo as the stage. These strange-looking beings suddenly burst in upon the tranquil everyday. But Hijikata’s and Simon’s bodies and their interaction with their landscapes provide a good contrast with each other. Whereas Hijikata’s masculine physique causes an intense dissimilation from the landscape, Simon’s body, divested of sex, assimilates into the landscape of Tokyo’s old shitamachi area.

Simon Yotsuya, 1971. Photo by Eikoh Hosoe.

simon-yotsuya.net:

The Prelude of Yotsuya Simon, a portfolio of photographs by Hosoe Eikoh, is an interesting collaborative effort between Hosoe and Simon as model. It may be considered simultaneously both a treatise on landscape and a treatise on the body. Prior to this work, Hosoe had published Kamaitachi, his masterful book of photographs of Hijikata Tatsumi, the originator of Ankoku Butoh (Dance of Darkness), taken against a background of scenes from a farming village in northeastern Japan. The photographs in his work with Simon were taken with the same concept in mind, this time with Tokyo as the stage. These strange-looking beings suddenly burst in upon the tranquil everyday. But Hijikata’s and Simon’s bodies and their interaction with their landscapes provide a good contrast with each other. Whereas Hijikata’s masculine physique causes an intense dissimilation from the landscape, Simon’s body, divested of sex, assimilates into the landscape of Tokyo’s old shitamachi area.

  1. crow-alley reblogged this from bremser
  2. foxling reblogged this from santosha65
  3. maggot-p reblogged this from gamagoorikick
  4. gamagoorikick reblogged this from tartanspartan
  5. santosha65 reblogged this from tartanspartan and added:
    Eikoh Hosoe. ‘Simon Yotsuya’ 1971
  6. tartanspartan reblogged this from insalatadiparole
  7. insalatadiparole reblogged this from japanexposures
  8. bremser reblogged this from japanexposures
  9. japanexposures posted this