LIFE IS ART
Japanese street photographer Shin Noguchi shows us the secret of life and transports us to the world his eyes are witnessing. He finds beauty in moments that happens everyday, anytime and everywhere. Capturing unpredictable stories full of humour, colour, movement, chaos and joy.
Photography and Text Shin Noguchi
Palm Reader, Asakusa, Tokyo, 2012
Awareness
I listen to the lump of invisible voice (or the voice that was confined) existing in nonverbal spaces and unstable landscape, and the voice of our society that is people's lives are full of humanity — sometimes very sad, sometimes in unreasonable situations. It's also same even for my family. They show me such beautiful moments, I think it’s a gift, the gift of a beautiful moment they gave, these extreme gifts appear in front of me, I can’t help but catch them.
I usually don't proceed with a project with a theme. The theme becomes visible only when I look over the "the reason" to click the shutter for continuing to take photographs after a certain period of time.
The subjects tell me the meaning and value of life. To take a picture is to affirm the existence of people — the existence of human karma — and it's also an opportunity to affirm my own existence and accept it as it is.
Capturing extraordinary elements/moments is important to attract the reader into the medium of photography too, but my past experience of traveling to America and other Asian countries and listening to them talk about their lives and their daily lives has given me a bird's eye view of national identity. And this has led me to treat the "constant/immutable elements" with particular respect, rather than the "captivating elements".
Even if it is difficult to completely erase the boundaries between cultures, races and colours, I strongly believe that, through the steady activity of photography, we can lower the boundaries to a height where children can easily jump over them like a skipping rope.
Shibuya, Tokyo, Aug 2013
Ginza, Tokyo, June 2017
Three sisters at home, Kamakura, Mar 2018
I want to share these beautiful moments with other people and, at the same time, I want them to understand that that extraordinary moments exist in our daily lives and that they can happen anywhere and at anytime:
"I’m here, just here. You're here, just here. There is something here, something beautiful, something special. It may last but a moment, but we are always connected to each other. I want you to feel that, you are not alone, there is always someone in the world keeping an eye on your struggle. I want you to believe it, just as I believe you."
If someone ask me "Are these photos then art, or life?", I want to say that ‘life is art’. I never called my photography ‘art’, but definitely, they show me what I feel art to be.
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Kamakura, Aug 2013
"Hatsumode", Zojoji Temple, Tokyo, Jan 2014
Hakone, July 2017
“To take a picture is to affirm the existence of people — the existence of human karma — and it's also an opportunity to affirm my own existence and accept it as it is.”
Hikono, the first experience of Pizza, at home, Kamakura, Sep 2018
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Kamakura, Feb 2014
Zojoji Temple, Tokyo, Mar 2016
“I usually don't proceed with a project with a theme. The theme becomes visible only when I look over the "the reason" to click.”
Kamakura, May 2016
Yumeji, Myohonji Temple, Kamakura, Mar 2015
Shinjuku, Tokyo, Apr 2016
Shibakoen, Tokyo, Jan 2018
Typhoon No.21, Enoshima Yacht Harbor, Oct 2017
Kotoyo and Hikono at home, Kamakura, Nov 2018
Hakone, July 2018
Ginza, Tokyo, Nov 2019
Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka, Jan 2019
Yumeji, Zushi Beach, Feb 2015
About Shin
Like all good photographers, Shin Noguchi treats the camera as another appendage – a special sensory organ merging hand and eye that allows him to show us what he sees, and more subtly, how he sees. And his camera is always working. Noguchi is internationally respected as a “street photographer,” but while he has won numerous prizes for his work in that genre, the appellation does not do justice to his omnivorous eye. His is just as likely to record tender moments with his family or newsworthy events like the earthquake in Fukushima as his encounters on the streets of Tokyo where he works, or Kamakura, where he lives. The connecting vein that runs throughout his work is a belief in the appearance of objectivity, a belief that first began to manifest when he discovered the work of the Magnum photo cooperative when he was still in his teens. It was, as he has said, the first time he realized that art and documentation could be merged. Noguchi knows perfectly well that what he shows us reflects his own sensibility and intellect but prefers to dial back the expressionistic impulse. It is an old trick in photography: make the viewer believe that had she been standing next to him she would have seen precisely what he saw. It’s also a difficult trick to pull off, particularly when the everyday world seems to be so full of surprises. In Noguchi-world, Giraffes wander about temples with Buddhist monks; workers dive into random circular openings in giant bushes, or burst from openings in blank walls as if transporting to or returning from another dimension; golf carts cluster like insects on neon-green lawns; objects possessed of more animate power than the people carrying them seem to propel their human cargo down the sidewalk instead of the opposite. In many images, goofy absurdity suddenly explodes from a sober social milieu in a way that seems to Western eyes particularly Japanese. Sentiment and affection are common themes, but the work is never sentimental. "In Color In Japan,” skates across the peaks of many of Noguchi’s favorite preoccupations (I personally have developed a fondness for his utterly adorable daughters) and one can only hope that we will get to explore his work more deeply in the future.
-- Excerpt a quote from the introduction for "In Color In Japan" by Chuck Patch
To see more Shin’s work, please visit his website or follow him on Instagram
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