Essay on Leibovitz and Natchtwey

 I do not have so much knowledge about a photograph and a photographer. When I watched the films, Annie Leibovitz: Life through a Lens (Leibovitz, 2008) and War Photographer (James Nachtwey) (Frei, 2001), however, I was impressed by the photos which were taken by two famous photographers, Leibovitz and Natchtwey.

(Took from Anthro Matsuri)

( Took from Alex Weinberg's blog)

 According to the film Annie Leibovitz: Life through a Lens (Leibovitz, 2008), Leibovitz was grown up in a big family and she spent a lot of time in a car. Since she saw beautiful scenery from the car window, she mentioned that it gave good influence to her artistic sense. In the film, one speaker said Leibovitz thought camera as a member of family, I think it shows how much she liked camera and carries it with her all the time.

When I was looking Leibovitz work, I noticed several things. I found she is good at taking a photo which many people in the scene. Those pictures, I posted above, sometimes look like a painting. I think that each people's standing position is perfectly good and the effect of shadow is great.

( Took from The Disney Blog )

 I also realized that she is good at taking picture one person is in it. In the film, one person mentioned that Leibovitz observes the situation in front of her well and try to understand the atmosphere of the situation. I think it makes her to be able to take pictures that really represents the personality or character of the people who are taken the photos.

 Since Youichi Watanabe, a war photographer, is getting popular in Japan, I was excited to watch the film about war photographer in the class. I, however, became kind of sad by looking at the pictures which were taken by Natchwey. It was because the photos taken by him had strong impact on me.

                                                            ( Took from Galerie mondamo )

 According to the film, War Photographer (James Nachtwey) (Frei, 2001), Natchtwey decided to be a war photographer during Vietnam war, because he was effected by the war pictures. It took long time for him to be confident in himself being a photographer. For him, taking war photos is witnessing  the history. It is very dangerous to take pictures during war, but he thinks that being in the dangerous situation is an essence of adventure.

 When I looked at the situation Natchtwey takes photo in the film, I thought if I were the people who are taken photo by him, I would be mad or upset, because even though those people are in the difficult situation, Natchtwey takes photos of them anyway. To me, it seemed like Natchtwey is kind of too careless about people's feeling. I, however, was changed by one of Natchtwey's word. He said like people who are taken photos by him understand that taking their photo makes it possible to send their voice and real time situation to other nations. It totally made sense to me.

 I learned from Leibovitz, it is very important to observe the situation in front of me and try to understand it when I take pictures. From Natchtwey, I learned that trying to take pictures that shows people's real life or real cultures which people have to spread true idea to people who do not really know about them.

A portrait of Japanese people

 When I heard that the theme of 3rd blog post is a portrait of Japanese people, one Japanese man came up on my mind. He runs Takoyaki (warm ball shape food which has octopus in it) shop around Gotenyama station. I often go to his shop to buy takoyaki. Whenever I go to his shop, he always welcomes me with his big smile and me and him sometimes have random conversation while he is making Takoyaki.

 After I took his photo, I interviewed with him about his life and his shop.  He started his shop 14 years ago. At first, he was working at shop with his mother, but after she died several years ago, he works mostly by himself.

 At his shop, customers can eat unique takoyaki, such as cheese tako (takoyaki which has cheese in it), kimuchi tako (kimuch in it), takuan tako (yellow colored radish tsukemono in it), chocolate tako (chocolate in it) and sujikon tako ( beef and konnyaku in it). The most surprising thing I heard from him was that some people who come to eat at his shop like to eat chocolate tako with beer. I have never thought of those combination, so I was shocked.

 Before I took his photo, I was a little nervous, because I was not sure if he allows me to take picture. Since I explained about the visual anthropology of Japan class, he kindly agreed to be taken the pictures. From that experience, I learned explaining the purpose of taking the picture is very important and if I do that, the chance of people allowing me to take photos might become high.

Neighborhood Hirakata -Gotenyama Shrine-

I live in an apartment which is very close to gotenyama station. I really like my neighborhood, because it is quiet and there are several places I love to visit. One of those places is a Gotenyama shrine.

This is the entrance to the shrine. This shrine is located on the hill, so visitors need to go up stairs. It sometimes takes energy, but I think it can be a good exercises.

After going up the stairs, visitors finally enter to the shrine.

First, visitors purify their mouth and hand by water at this place. Shinto focuses on purification. I learned that people who had death in their family usually refrain from going into shrine, in the other class I am taking now at CIE.

After I purified my mouth and hand, I prayed. I usually throw 5 yen when I pray at the shrine, because goen means good relationship with others or good chance with people in Japanese.

I had time to look around in the shrine and I found a lots of omikuji (fortune slip) are tied to a bamboo sticks. There were some ema (wooden plate which people write their wish on) too.

I first came to this shrine when I was a freshman at KGU. I was trying to find a place to practice syamisen and found the shrine. I do not go there so often lately, but I thought its good to go to those spiritual places.
I felt my heart kind of purified after I visited the shrine. I would like to go to the shrine in Kyoto next time.