I Want Pink.
The Perfect Manual to Sakura 27 black and white photographs, 1 in colour, collage over 36 pages Softcover 29 x 20.3 cm Printed on 100 gsm art paper Limited edition (self-published) Mixed media bookwork 25 unique pieces Printed in Japan / Germany Tokyo / Düsseldorf 2015 |
Cherry blossom time in Tokyo turned out to be truly wonderful, more wonderful than I could ever have imagined. I strolled through Ueno Park, one of the oldest parks in Tokyo, across Aoyama Cemetery and along Meguro-gawa canal, and I watched and watched and watched, and I could barely believe my eyes. By day and by night - but especially by night - I got swept along by the crowds eating, drinking, chatting with their mates, smiling into their camera phones, posing and taking selfies, trying to find the best angle and the sweetest smiles. Were these really the people that everybody the world over "knows" to be workaholics and nothing but? The sheer joy of life all around told a different story.
The photographer's experience might have been the perfect blueprint for the most cliched picture show on earth. So I selected a handful of images representing people's faces in close-up, transfixed by sheer happiness, and juxtaposed them with more abstract ones to create a beautiful photobook in grainy, slightly Daido-ish black and white. Petal-like bits and pieces of garish pink and green float across the pages to re-create the feeling of lightness. For an additional moment of surprise, I inserted two pages with the title and subtitle into the book instead of placing them on the front cover, and created a special third one for the colophon, an image in its own right. This bookwork comes in the shape of a slim magazine, just like my earlier book about Japan, but it is a first in that the photography comes in black and white only. The only exception: A huge Easter Bunny styled in neon rainbow, a playful take on the spirit in the streets and parks I found so amazing. |