The 4th edition of Tokyo Photo Fair was deemed a great success. Many French galleries were present. This was due, no doubt, to the visit at Paris Photo last year of co-founders Takeshi “Arthur” Thornton and Tomo Harada. Big French names were also among the sponsors : Air France, Nespresso and Pommery.
The quality of the art on the walls was appreciated by local and international prfoessionals such as Bill Hunt, who was invited to speak about his photography collection : “The Unseen Eye”, or Manfred Heiting who was in town with a group of trustees from the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Other speakers invited for a series of “Tokyo Talks” included former visual editor of The New Yorker Elizabeth Biondi, Michiko Kasahara, Chief Curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography or Taka Kawachi, Chief Director of Amana Photo Collection.
The turnout surpassed any previous edition, a sign that the fair has become an essential vector for the promotion of photography in Japan and throughout Asia.
Japanese collectors, who were rumored to prefer small and inexpensive works, were seduced by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin’s wall-size photographs presented by Gagosian Gallery (New York), by the precious carbro color prints of Sarah Moon at Camera Obscura (Paris), or the oversize Guy Bourdin images offered by Michael Hoppen (London).
Additional exhibits included Sui generis, a selection of prints by contemporary Chinese photographers presented by MEM Gallery (Tokyo) and Three Shadows Photography Center (Beijing), a short but beautiful tribute to Yasuhiro Ishimoto (1921-2012) curated by Photo Gallery International (Tokyo), and an amusing gallery of celebrity portraits presented by Air France.
At the same time in Tokyo, the Mori Art Museum’s exhibit entitled Arab Express received much praise from international collectors and gallery owners who found the time to attend. Many of the artists in the group show are photographers or use photography as part of the creative process. Installations by the Atfal Ahdath collective (Lebanon) stood alongside photographs by Ahmed Mater, Abdulnasser Gharem (Saudi Arabia), Meera Huraiz (Dubai, UAE), Tarek Al-Ghoussein (Palestinian born in Kuwait) or Akraml Zataari (Lebanon).
This exhibit attempts to overturn the stereotypes surrounding arab men, often perceived as extremists or terrorists in Japan. A world tour of this exhibit would be beneficial to all.
Here are a few souvenir snapshots. Sayonara and see you next year.
Christophe Lunn
