$41.25
- Softcover
- 44 pages
- 220 x 308 mm
- ISBN 9784905360414
- 2023
Place M, a photography gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo, is in its 36th year of operation this year. In June, we invited photographer Feng Li to Place M to participate in the exhibition "Flash Theater", and after nearly a month of shooting and creation in Tokyo, we agreed to select photos and make a book immediately after the shooting, which was the opportunity for the publication of "Tokyo Feng Li". This reminds me of CAMP member Keizo Kitajima's 70s snapshot collection "Photo Express", which was also filmed and published in exhibitions and publications for a year. Just like the coincidences and adventures that are never lacking in Feng Li's photography, when we were drinking a cold beer at the photography bar KODOJI in Shinjuku Golden Gai, we happened to meet Keizo Kitajima, who was drunk and came to the stall.
Every day of Feng Li's time in Tokyo was like a beast taking pictures, and everyone was exhausted. Immediately after the shooting of the day, we would go to the 711 convenience store near Place M to print photos (once I ran out of photo paper in the convenience store because of the excessive number of prints), and paste them on the wall of the photography classroom on the fourth floor of Place M for selection and editing.
In a conversation with Masato Seto, Seto commented on Feng Li's photography: "Photographs have two sides, the surface and the inside, although mentioning "surface" in this context will have a slightly derogatory feeling, but in Feng Li's photography there is no such situation at all, the highly unified sense of plane and weakness on the "surface" just reflects the depth of his photographic works." ”
This lightweight, Zine-like collection contains 46 photographs that remain very personal to Feng——— even though he is shooting on the streets of Tokyo for the first time. From drunks in flash lights to portraits smoking on Moriyama Avenue, from cemeteries in central Tokyo to fireworks by Cai Guo-Qiang, Feng Li uses his photography to engage in cross-time and spatial discussions with his predecessors in Japan.
