My goal with the selection of images here was to pick shots from where I actually visited while in Japan. That of course didn't work out too well. I've seen the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, as well as Ueno Park. But the other two were just picked because I liked them.
Good golly this software doesn't want to play nice. Ok, so starting at the top I have one of my more least signifigant images
(My LSI if you will). I just picked this one because it looked pretty neat to me. The gate has a great mixture of colors and it just
reminds me so much of what I saw while in Tokyo (although this gate is not specifically from Tokyo from what I've gathered).
The second and (well, the fourth may or may not be) were supposed to remind me of Ueno Park, mostly because the second
image definitely IS Ueno Park. There is a bit of a confusion there with that fourth one as it may or may not
be Ueno Park. Anyway, I visited there while I was staying in Japan and that place was just fabulous. Really peaceful,
with a great temple right in the middle of the park. A temple where you aren't supposed to enter/take photography,
a temple where I DID enter and take photography, and a park where I am hereby banned from re-entering. (I kid, they never caught me).
But it sure brings back a lot of memories. When we were there the cherry blossoms were out
and it was just a gorgeous place. But the only issue was right outside of the park was the huge cityscape, which
kinda ruined it a bit if you looked too far off.
Image 3 is a temple at Nara. I picked this one because Julia was attacked by a rogue deer there. She also
had many other shenanigans. No other reason for choosing this one.
Number 5 is one of the more memorable things I've seen. The Imperial Palace was just freaking awesome.
We went on a day where the weather was perfect, and the light was shining through the trees onto the palace
giving it a Studio Ghibli effect. Really awesome. This of course wasn't the angle we were seeing it at
(we were much further back, you had to look at it from the main bridge) but it was still breathtaking.
Visual Studies Version
Mizenko-sensei had a good point. Many of these slides do show extremely long lines of identical or near-identical objects.
I don't know the actual reason for this, but I do agree with Mizenko-sensei on the point that it
creates a feeling of endlessness. I suppose since the middle three prints are supposed to be representing a time
long since past, it would be possible that this is a religious reference supposed to indicate the endlessness of time
itself. I honestly don't know what to say about it though, as I feel like I'm poking in the dark here.
But it certainly does give a feeling of vastness, which is something I noticed while I was in these
types of Parks. They always seems to have long, somewhat straight roads and the entire area
is deceptively longer than it seems. When I was in Ueno though, I saw many other "one-off" statues
as well, so I don't want to imply that this is the only type of format for displaying statues. (Then again,
I saw Ueno in THE FUTURE, whereas we're clearly referencing the past here).
In regards to Mizenko-sensei's second point, I regard the middle three images with an association to the Tokugawa Shogunate
simply because (from my very limited Japanese history courses) this just screams pre-modern Japan (well the dreamy version of it anyway).
All of the images are heavily imbued with nature, but at the same time they are completely spotless.
The world just seems to clean and pure in all of these. We see the traditional clothing in a few of the shots,
as well as many of the objects I just associate Japan with. Cherry Blossoms, clothing decor, the types of statues,
the lamps and the temple. This is what I associate with Japan from before 1930, and is always what
I was looking for while I was in our crazy futuristic Japan. (Found quite a bit too, Beppu is a great city
for this kind of thing because they try to keep many of the older shrines restored. So you would see
all these tiny shrines on the side of the road, even though they all seemed deserted.)
A quick note about the colors. They are all just so dreamy. The sky is a friendly blue, the cherry blossoms
basically pop out of the slide with a vibrant purple. The water also (on 5) looks mostly unpolluted, and
all of the walkways are (more or less) represented in a familiar tan/brown and are in extremely
good condition. It feels as though all of the colors are slightly more dreamy versions of their original shades,
which helps gives each print that "mental nostalgia value" of how life should/would/could have/was been. (Wow)
All of the slides give off a friendly vibe due to the color choices, and print a passive pacifist version of
these landscapes.
OK, nice group of slides. And I like your description of your (Evan Wolbach's) reasons behind selecting them. And it's always neat to hear about Ursinus students getting attacked by hopefully not rabid wild/tame animals. But now it's time to do something visual studies-ish with the images. Make up a narrative appropriate to the time when the slides were purchased. Talk about why three of the slides involve long lines of objects--what's up with that? Something about vastness, infinity, etc.? Why do you bracket the middle three images with images associated with the Tokugawa shogunate? Etc., etc. etc.
ReplyDelete-Mizenko
I liked how you pointed out the whole thing that most of these pictures seem to taper off into those extremely long lines; perhaps, since Mizenko-sensei did say Japanese photographers took them, this is a contrast to the Ukiyo-e prints, which really lacked all depth perception?
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the album itself, I think it's very interesting, if I was a globetrotter, I'd have this to basically show off all the actual shrines/buildings/things of the places I've been. I'd describe the difference between my church (which of course I would attend cause I'd need to pay my way into heaven- I'm gonna get struck down for that, but I mean no disrespect) and the temples.
And poor Julia! That had to have completely ruined the whole 'zen' feeling commonly associated with the temple via deer attack...
Evan-
ReplyDeleteGreat collection of images here. Personally, I found the fourth image (with the cherry blossoms) to be particularly engaging.
Anyway, it was certainly cool to hear about your experiences and how you relate to these images. But could we hear a bit more about the images themselves?
I did, however, like your discussion of the colors, especially with regards to the "friendliness" they add here.
Evan-
ReplyDeleteInteresting collection. I actually think your first image is pretty significant. For example, what is it a gate to? Buddhist, Shinto temple? The amount of color and detail that went into it denotes something important. (Actually, the dragons remeinded me of gargoyles on catherdrals.)
Besides that, what stuck me was the people in the second and fourth photographs. So many of the pictures we've been looking at were posed in a studio, so it's refreshing to see such candid scenes (like the little boy looking at the camera in the fourth!)