Lost in Publications

Takashi Homma

Takashi Homma was born in 1962 in Tokyo and studied photography at Nihon University College of Art. From 1991-92 he worked as a photographer for i-D magazine in London. 1991 he received the Kimura Ihei Commemorative Photography Award for “Tokyo Suburbia” and is represented by the Gallery 360 Degrees, Tokyo.

Takashi Homma is approaching photography as art and describes his own works as, “various attempts to question ways of seeing the world using photography.”

I was fortunate enough to ask Takashi Homma some short questions. Special thanks goes to Ken Iseki of “my new notebook” and “between the books”.

LIP: Which photo book influenced you the most and why?

TH: There are many. I like photography as art more than just straight photography, Ed Ruscha, for example.

LIP: What makes a good photo book for you?

TH: Good pictures.

LIP: “Tokyo Suburbia” is a classic and a hard to get photo book collectible, now you published it as an app for the iPad and iPhone. Which kind of role do you think e-books will take in the future of photo books?

TH: People now can access to the book easily as a reference. That’s good thing. And I believe it makes original more valuable.

LIP: With “Satellite 9” you had nine exhibitions and events all over Tokyo, accompanying your Retrospective “New Documentary” at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. Also you did a performance called “Rrreecconnstruccttt” together with Ivan Vartanian, where participants recompose cut up prints of yours, in order to question the nature of how an image is constructed. How important are these events and the dialog with the audience to you? Is this something the photography world needs more?

TH: Photography shouldn’t only be in the museum.

LIP: What was the last good photo book you hold in your hands?

TH: Wolkenstudien. Cloud Studies. Études des nuages (Spector Books)

LIP: Can you tell us what you are working on right now?

TH: Photographing mushrooms, cutting and re-editing photographs, shooting video, painting and more.

@6 months ago with 7 notes
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“Babyland” is Takashi Homma’s first photo book, which was published by Little More in 1995.

In his first photobook, Takashi Homma illustrates the infantalized daydream world that has slowly invaded our culture. Particularly in Japan, there has been a growing trend of teenagers and adults taking on as a personal aesthetic the colorful toy factory style previously created for babies and toddlers.

The increasing prevalence of women with Hello Kitty accessories and people decorating their homes in Romper Room pastels adorned with toys and eye candy denotes a culture in confusion.

In “Babyland,” Homma presents the peripheral evidence of this back-to-the-playground mentality and the industry that has grown to meet its desires. He shows a growing detachment from adult interaction and the subtle reflections of kid-dom in the details of our daily lives in brilliant, full-bleed color photographs. (text from book)

“Babyland”, Little More, 1995 © Takashi Homma

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"I would say contemporary photography is about editing. Classic photography isn’t. Some Japanese critics have said that I edit too much, but I don’t care. My answer to that is: Why not? My friend also asked me why I used silk screens for the “M” series, and my answer was still: Why not? All this is just part of the way I edit my works. I want to show the diversity of photography. The Japanese are too strict about (their conception of) photography. I want to show more freedom."

Interview with Takashi Homma on The Japan Times

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Shonan International Village 1 from “Tokyo Suburbia” © Takashi Homma

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The series “New Waves” is a ongoing photographic project, which started in 2000 at the North Shore in Hawaii. Takashi Homma pressed the shutter button simultaneously with the movement of the waves and captured the changing appearance.

“New Waves” was published in 2007 by Parco in a large format and filled with full page colour images from start to finish.

“New Waves”, Parco, 2007 © Takashi Homma

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The book “Vedove/Widows” is about memories and personal archives, particularly in relation after a loss. Takashi Homma photographed eleven widows, in the Italian region of Liguria, together with their sourundings and also re-photographed pictures of family albums.

Curated by Francesco Zanot and designed by Fabrizio Radaelli, the two volumes are separately bound and divided by thick card, all held together by a heavy duty elastic band.

“Vedove/Widows” was published in 2010 by Fantombooks in a limited edition of 350 copies and is already sold out, but for a few more bucks you can still get a copy at photo-eye or Dashwood Books.

“Vedove/Widows”, Fantombooks/Boiler 2010 (pictures via: fantombooks)

“Vedove/Widows”, Fantombooks/Boiler 2010 (pictures via: nuClear)

“Vedove/Widows”, Fantombooks/Boiler 2010 (pictures via: nuClear)

“Vedove/Widows”, Fantombooks/Boiler 2010 (pictures via: nuClear)

“Vedove/Widows”, Fantombooks/Boiler 2010 pictures via: nuClear)

“Vedove/Widows”, Fantombooks/Boiler 2010 (pictures via: nuClear)

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“New Documentary” was published by The Asahi Shimbun, in conjunction with a traveling retrospective at the Tokyo Opera City Gallery. During Takashi Homma’s first museum solo show, nine smaller exhibitions called “Satellite 9″, took place in Tokyo. A detailed review by Prajna Desai can be found here and at photo-eye by Alexandra Huddleston.

“New Documentary”, The Asahi Shimbun, 2011 © Takashi Homma (photo-eye)

Among other galleries at “Satellite 9″, NOW IDeA Utrecht let different artists use Takashi Homma’s “Mountain” series to create their own ZINEs and posters.

“Bird Watching” by Ueta Mio

(photos via: oneyearofbooks)

“One of them” by Rikako Nagashima

(photos via: oneyearofbooks)

“A way of seeing” by Yoriko Kita

(photos via: oneyearofbooks)

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Tokyo Children, 2001 © Takashi Homma

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In the size of a phone book and thick cardboard pages, “Tokyo Suburbia” was published by Korinsha Press in 1998 and won the 24th Kimura Ihei Award in 1999. The masterpiece become a collectable and sells now for around $1,000. Thanks to Takashi Homma you can get a slightly lighter and affordable version of the book as an iPad version, which makes it for everyone accessible, who is interested in the work.

Takashi Homma traveled to suburbs in and around Tokyo, where he photographed the not-so-photogenic objects like apartment complexes or parking lots. A photo critic in Archis observes:

“…Beyond the apparent frivolity and mischievousness, there is another, unironic, message: that everything — that is, every thing — has potential aesthetic properties. In this sense, perhaps the best point of reference for these photographs is John Cage’s composition 4′ 33″; scored as silence, it requires the listener to pay close attention to a random slice of environmental noise. Homma works with a similar arbitrariness — he could have pressed the shutter half an hour earlier or later.”

“Tokyo Suburbia”, Korinsha Press, 1998 © Takashi Homma (oneyearofbooks)

Tokyo Suburbia”, iPhone/iPad, 2011 © Takashi Homma

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Published by Little More in 2001, ”Tokyo Children” shows a new generation of children, “who are never going to understand your world…who are never going to feel what you felt about the world, nor even really care about you one way or another.” The book is accompanied by an essay by writer Douglas Coupland, who popularized the term “Generation X.”

“Tokyo Children”, Little More, 2001 © Takashi Homma (pictures via: oneyearofbooks)

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“Tokyo and My Daughter” is a series of 32 unpublished photographs taken over a longer period of time. The little book was published by Nieves in 2006.

“Tokyo and my Daughter”, looks like an intimate family album, but after all it’s fictional for the simple reason, that the girl isn’t Takashi Homma’s child, and some of the pictures were found and taken by the family of the girl. It will lead you to give further consideration to images and contexts that you see in the photographs, and to think about what photography is.

“Most Japanese photographers only take photos, they are not concerned about what happens afterward. But I always think about the editing process. For example, in the “Tokyo and My Daughter” series there are some pictures of a little girl displayed among others of landscapes. The original girl pictures were not actually taken by me. They are like “found photos.” They were taken by the girl’s real parents and were in a family album that I photographed. I then displayed those pictures alongside my own landscapes. That mixture of images is key to the editing process and how I present my work to the public.” - Takashi Homma

“Tokyo and My Daughter” is sold out, but you can still get the special edition at Nieves or check out Photo-Eye for some copies.

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“Trails” and “First, Jay Comes.” are two books, which move away from the urban and suburban photography of Takashi Homma. With photographs and paintings, he shows beautiful graphical works, where snow, forest, and blood come together.

“Red marks left on white snow. These blood-like stains can be regarded as proof of some creature caught in the hunt. It tells us nothing else, and we find ourselves trifled with ambiguity of reality as we observe only absence of life in the photograph. Displayed are reproduced prints of the series introduced in 2009 and a painting of the same title.” (museum of contemporary art, kanazawa)

You can find also a good review of both books at 5B4 by Jeff Ladd.

“First, Jay Comes.” was published in an edition of 500 copies by Hassla Books in 2009.

“Trails” was published in an edition of 700 copies by Match and Company in 2009.

As far as I know is “First, Jay Comes” already sold out, but you still can get a copy of “Trails” at Bookshop M.

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Like “In Our Nature” and “Trails”, Takashi Homma focused on our natural environment in “Mushrooms From The Forest 2011”.

He photographed irradiated mushrooms in the Tohoku area near the damaged nuclear power stations and carried out the tragic consequences on forests, nature, and the food chain.

“The earthquake and subsequent tsunami of March 11th, 2011, near Japan’s Tohoku region, led to the catastrophic equipment failures and nuclear disaster of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Six Months later, on September 15th, the Japanese government prohibited the gathering and ingestion of any mushrooms grown in the forty-three cities of Fukushima prefecture. Traces of radiation exceeding safety limits were detected in some wild mushroom varieties. Fungi inherently absorb radiation much more rapidly than other organisms. My Geiger counter detected a greatly elevated level of radiation in the lush forests of Fukushima when compared to the region’s urban areas. The wild mushrooms in the photographs assembled here are from those forests.” - Takashi Homma

“Mushrooms from the Forest 2011” includes 147 images on 288 pages and was published in 2011 by blind gallery. Copies available directly at between the books and Ti Pi Tin, photo-eye, bookdummypress.

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Takashi Homma’s “M” series is about mass-produced food and images. He created silk-screen prints based on photographs of McDonald all around the world, which is an appropriate medium to demonstrate the endless proliferation of fast food restaurants around the world.

“What Homma captured this time is McDonald. McDonald is the most famous restaurant chain, maybe most of the people in the world have used at least once in their life time. McDonald was a very close to Homma too. It was in his everyday life. Homma is famous for capturing a usual life, not a special and sensational thing but as it is. So choosing McDonald as a motif was a natural choice. The interesting point of this new series is that he photographed the shop not in Japan but in US, France and other countries. He might have choosen McDonald as a universal motif of everyday life and be trying to reach directly to people’s mind all around the world.” - Rasa Tsuda

“M” was published on the occasion of an exhibition at Gallery 360, Tokyo. This first edition was limited to 500 copies, each with a unique cover screen print.

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