Magnum Blog / Yuta – or how I met my assistant in Tokyo

Yuta – or how I met my assistant in Tokyo

© Jacob Aue Sobol/Magnum Photos I had just finished reading the novel Norwegian Wood by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The love story of the youngster Toru Watanabe who looks back on his days as a student at Waseda University in Tokyo and his relationships with two very different women - the beautiful yet emotionally troubled Naoko, and the outgoing, lively Midori. I felt so attracted to the environment the book was depicting and the emotions Toru was going through that one morning, I decided to visit the university myself, to see if there were any other Toru Watanabes around. At this time I was living together with my girl friend at her grand parents old sushi-store. No one had been living there for years, but you could still faintly read the kanji characters on the front of the house....福寿司....Happy sushi. Happy sushi was situated just beside the train tracks. When the express trained passed (every 7th minute) all the shoji-doors started shaking and the cups started jingling. Anyway, I felt pretty isolated there because Sara worked from early morning to late evening, and so on this day, I decided to go to Waseda. I came just around lunchtime when all the students were gathered in the cafeteria. Strong beams of sunlight hit the rows of students as they were enjoying their break. I spend some time wandering around, but didn't really feel like taking pictures. As I went out into the backyard, I felt that someone was looking at me, and I was just about to turn around, as a cautious voice spoke to me. "Who are you?" And there he was, leaning against and old tree and smoking his cigarillo. Not Toru but Yuta. Yuta studied philosophy, and when he found out I was Danish, he was excited to discuss Danish philosopher Kierkegaard and his thoughts on love. Yuta and I spend the afternoon walking the streets, and we ended up in his room on the first floor of his grandparent's house. "My grand father hates me, but my grandmother loves me" Yuta said, and started cleaning away the empty bottles of vodka. "It is the only way I can fall a sleep", he said. Yuta was crazy about the Beatles, and as he unbuttoned his shirt and got ready to play his guitar, I started photographing him for the first time. For the next year Yuta worked with me as my assistant, and so we became friends. Links » Jacob Aue Sobol's Magnum Portfolio » Jacob Aue Sobol's Books (Signed from the Magnum Store)

nigel amies

Jacob, I'm glad you're giving some info on your time in Tokyo and something about how you get some of your pictures. I was curious about that after looking at the images in your book 'I Tokyo.' How do you get photos as intimate as that in a place where as you admit it's hard to get to know people let alone get close enough to get them naked?! You talk of your impressions - quite accurate I'd say from my own experience of the place - of Tokyo being emotionally cold and the people isolated, or isolating themselves from each other, never mind from a foreigner. So how do you get those girls to take off their kit? What's the secret? Do you hang out in seedy side street bars until everyone's too drunk to care, or you pay some hookers? Or maybe you just have extra good interpersonal communication skills. For sure pictures like that don't just happen. Some of it could be clasified as street photography, but the portraits are posed. Care to share? Personally speaking, when I was there it was hard enough just finding someone who would admit to speaking English.

d b

ahh - stories like this are great.. influential in fact, when one thinks of how random a meeting can be and how fruitful and lasting it's effect..
thanks for sharing.

Bob Black

JACOB! :)))

terrific story and it is so refreshing to listen to a photographer speak about their work in the same way they live, the contact and the friendships born of and through which we make our stories....but first, since you told of the story of Yuta-san and Murikami (a favorite of mine as well), i want to share with you my own story...

almost 4 years ago, shortly after i'd moved to Toronto to get married, I entered my favorite art books book store in Toronto, David Mirivish Books, looked at a few books on photography, picked up a book for my wife by one our favorite contemporary sculptors, Christopher Wilmarth, proceeded to the check out counter to purchase and then for no particular reason looked up....and gasped: here is what i saw....(LON90452)

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=Mod_ViewBox.ViewBoxZoom_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOBLYYWWN&IT=ImageZoom01&PN=37&STM=T&DTTM=Image&SP=Album&IID=29YL530HRTWN&SAKL=T&SGBT=T&DT=Image

I stood there for a good minute or saw looking up, as if on that quiet May day, suddently i was in a dream, winter's dream and i was completely lost...i looked around the rest of the bookstore, and attached to the walls in enormous size prints,like black stars, were these extraordinary photographs that seemed to have come from my own dream....i immediately asked the clerk, "what's the name of the photographer whose work that is?"...she said, "i dont know, some guy that's part of the Contact festival from another country"....when i got home, i clicked on the Contact website and learned your name and immediately hunted down Sabine...that night i wrote a post at Lightstalkers about the work I had seen in the store...the "show" wasnt reviewed, many of the folk i spoke too had never heard of you or the work (a good sign in my book) and later, your another LS member who knew you (David H) thanked me for writing about sabine....it was one of those moments, as when Carusoe first finds Friday's footprints in the sand, of brotherhood and bonding and inspiration...

and now that I, Tokyo has been published, i am just as happy as that first day in may 3 or 4 years back. I, Tokyo are remarkably simple and profound book. at ode to moiyama and araki and hosoe and domon ken and Kiyoshi Suzuki and Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Shomei Tomatsu, Kikuji Kawada, Masatoshi Naitoh, Tetsuya Ichimura, Hiromi Tsuchida, Masahisa Fukase, Ikko, Ryoji Akiyama, Ken Ohara, Shigeru Tamura and Bishin Jumonji, etc etc etc...but more importantly, I, tokyo is about navigating the one's self through the forest of reconciliation: of place, of light and of love....in some magical way, it reminded me of Teshigahara's Woman In the Dunes....and what is so magnificent, is that it is still a dialogue with the same love, the same loss, the same attempt to speak about the passing away of things as did Sabine...

the magical flying children:

LON90440 (sabine) and LON102931 (i, tokyo)

the animals who've been tossed by us and environment

LON90421 (sabine) and LON102883 (i, tokyo)

and all those magnificent and knowing faces in both greenland and tokyo...

and there, in both books, the moment when light and love is born alight:

LON90435 (sabine) and LON102909 (i, tokyo).

both books are magnificent and sit deeply in my own life, as a photographer and as a person who has tried to speak about things that have passed inside and out and around of this life....

that if Sabine was a love story, than I, Tokyo is equally a love story, and what is magnificent is that that love story as broadened to include all that has passed before you and around you...

for that, we are all still fortunate....

as i have often told david alan harvey, our photography is nothing if not the extended breathing of who we are, not photographers, but people speaking upon that which has inhabited us and will, all too quickly, disappear and leave us, like that pup upon the white sheet of snow, bereft...

though for now, we are swining into that shadow and sun-rich light..

thanks
cheers
bob

scott lucas

Hi Jacob,
When I looked at your work about Tokyo, the first photographer that sprung to mind was Moriyama Daido. To what extent did his work have an influence on you ?

Davin Ellicson

Jacob,

How were you supporting yourself while in Japan? You seem to have a knack for securing funding through cultural foundations etc. I suppose you sell prints in good numbers as well. Your way of working on long-term projects which end up as books is very appealing. Do you do assingments at all? Thank you for the insights.

Davin

d b

OFF TOPIC

martin parrs english cities project - shot for the guardian...
is there a way of seeing a folio of work? i heard some really positive feedback - how he nailed liverpool - and would love to see more, but unable to online by the looks of it..

BACK ON TOPIC

isn´t it true that coincidence and good happenings inform and mold our lives just as much as a sharp plan or appointment does?
love it.

magnum, blog is warming up well..

Rafal Pruszynski

Hi Jacob,

I put you right on top of the list as far as my favorite Magnum photogs, and thats for the work you did on Sabine. Fantastic, the look of the work, the sequencing of the photos, its a fantastic project, and very very intimate. Its also very different from your Tokyo work, which is more street-ish. I wonder how you feel about the two projects, which do you want to pursue again, something intimate or something more along the lines of the Tokyo work. Im also wondering, before, during and after Sabine had been completed, were you looking at the work of photographers who create this sort of diaristic work and were you influenced by them at all.

Nacho Hernandez

Great story, Jacob. Thanks for sharing. Add some really weird dreams and a speaking cat, and you almost have the begining to a Murakami novel. I love Murakami and reading him makes want to go to Japan.

Great photos too.

Cheers,

Nacho

Francis Murakami

Jacob Sobol! When I saw your book the other day - I cried. Thanks Jacob. Your pictures are pure emotions caught in black & white; tears cried by a Metropol forgotten by it´s citizens. Jacob Sobol you are a star *

Jacob Aue sobol

Dear Nigel,

It is correct the Japanese people seemed unreachable in the beginning of my stay when I only saw them as a swarm of people, but - as I write in the text of my book - soon I started searching for the individual human presence. I started meeting people one to one as in the story of Yuta, which I feel gave me a better understanding of life in Tokyo.

I think my pictures are build on trust and communication. There are no drunk people or hookers in my book (not that I think it would be wrong), and no I am not a bar-photographer. Actually I rarely photograph at night.

I often think it is my search for presence, intensity and the vulnerable human being that leads to the erotic, but obviously I am also interested in our sexuality. As you can see in the book I have also photographed many couples that have become comfortable with me photographing them in intimate situation. To me time is crucial - not before there is a mutual trust I am able to take these pictures.

...posed portraits?....many days I would do 20-30 portraits in the streets or parks, but maybe I would only feel an intimate connection to one or two of the people I photographed. After my Sabine-book I thought I would only be able to do these kind of pictures of people I love, but in Tokyo I experienced that I could also share an intimate moment with a person I met in the street and still be able to create this strong connection between my inner life and the images.

To me it has never been interesting to be an anonymous spectator. I want to take part in life and recored my experiences. I want to communicate and meet people rather than to observe from a distance. This is the reason I take pictures.

Jacob Aue sobol

Dear Lucas

When I started my project in Tokyo I didn't know the work of Daido, but of course living in Japan
I got to see a lot of his books during my stay and felt inspired by his irrational and instinctual approach, but I do think my strongest inspiration comes from my own experiences in life.

When I took the picture of my girlfriend Sabine's torn pantyhose in Greenland (LON90441), I had not been photographing for 6 months, simply because I had fallen in love, and I was more interested in becoming a part of the society. But when Sabine revealed her star-panties I suddenly felt like taking pictures again, because this was a moment I wanted to remember and keep with me. From that day I started using my pocket camera, because I could photograph without the feeling that this was my main reason to be there. This resulted in much more random and unpredictable images, which I felt had a stronger connection to my emotional life.

Even though my identity as a photographer is more obvious now, I always try to keep this unconsidered and irrational approach. Not to be in opposition to anything or to look like someone else, but more as a simple wish to be myself.

In the end Daido is Daido and Jacob is Jacob.

Jacob Aue sobol

Dear Davin,

I have a good relation to some private fonds that continuously support my work, and the Danish Arts Agency, from whom I received a grant this year, has been supportive of my work as well during the last 5-6 years. In that sense I am very spoiled. It gives me space and time to do my work.

I have not sold many prints yet, but now that I have joined Yossi Milo Gallery in NY I hope
to improve on this when the exhibition will be up next fall. Also I will have a few images at the Magnum Gallery during Paris Photo next week.

Jacob Aue sobol

Dear Rafal,

Tokyo and Tiniteqilaaq are probably as different as you can get. In Tiniteqilaaq, you live, eat, sleep, love, laugh and cry with the same 150 people every day. This kind of closeness becomes unique since you are forced to share everything. In Tokyo the intimate situation of being isolated with a group of people didn't exist for me. There are crowds of people, but if you are not part of the daily routine, your isolation becomes obvious. My feeling of loneliness and isolation was overwhelming and it was something I had to find a way to change. It made me search for people I could relate to and connect with.

I do find it difficult to work in places I am not connected to in some way. I simply lose interest in the place, because I don't have those connections, which allow me to approach the place in a more personal way. In Greenland, I started photographing Sabine because I was in love with her, but in Tokyo the situation was different because Sara worked long hours and I was left on my own to explore the city. In this way, my love for Sara and the emotions we shared in our relationship mostly appeared in my images from the streets and in my meetings with strangers.

To get an idea of why I started photographing more personal, diaristic pictures please see my answer to Lucas. When I was a student I was especially fascinated by the work of Nan Goldin and Anders Petersen.

Rich Riordan

Hello Jacob

Good story about how you work and it's nice to see you getting back to people once they've asked you their questions. It's how I hoped this blog would work.

You're one of the photographers that I draw the most inspiration from at present. I've been wondering how you go about your work for some time now.

It seems that rather than going out looking for photos you go out looking for people and encounters. But as a photographer you must always have pictures in mind as an eventual goal. (correct me if I'm wrong)

I'm wondering how Yuta fit into this. It doesn't seem like you need an assistant. It looks like you travel pretty light and that there aren't many logistics to handle. Did he primarily introduce you to people you wouldn't ordinarily meet? If not, then how did he work with you?

I also wanted to ask you about Guatemala and Thailand as well. I read an interview about you a couple years back and it said that you originally wanted to photograph a single family in Tokyo like you did in Guatemala, but that's not how it seems to have worked out. Was it harder to do this in such a big city or did you change methods for other reasons?

Trying to meet strangers on the street every day must have opened up more possibilities but also must have been a lot more draining. Every day going out to establish new relationships. When you head out for the day do you see the photography as secondary to the encounters and conversations or is it always a primary goal? While you're doing the 20-30 portraits in the park and you feel a connection with someone how do you take it further?

In Thailand your subjects seem to be a little harder. Rougher people, prostitutes with customers (it looks like). Wonder if you are still doing things the same way as in Japan or do you have a fixer or a contact who gets you into these situations?

Sorry for all the questions, answer what you can (or what you feel like). Like I say, I'm a huge fan.

Rich Riordan

Davin Ellicson

Jacob,

Thanks for responding. One last question regarding technique: you still shoot film and I imagine there is a reason. You must like the mystery, the delay, the tangible quality (sensuality?) of film. The process over the immediacy of digital??? I ask because I would still be shooting mostly film if I could afford it. Right now, I save all my film for my panoramic cameras.

Davin

robert

Jacob - which is your prefered point and shoot camera ? amazing work by the way...

Patricia Lay-Dorsey

Jacob,

I appreciate your speaking so openly about your process, at least the process you're engaged in now. Actually even with Sabine, it was the "encounter" that you were capturing, was it not? HCB had his "decisive moment" and you have your "relational moment."

I resonate with that way of working too. Taking anonymous street shots doesn't interest me. There has to be some spark of recognition before I click my shutter. Even with buildings. Even with self portraits. If it doesn't speak to my heart, I don't bother with it.

Were you always like this or is it something that's come on with time and experience? Actually it sounds more like a particular way of being in the world rather than simply being a photographer.

Patricia

Rafal Pruszynski

Jacob,

nice to hear back from you. I have for a while been fascinated by diaristic photography. You mentiond Nan Goldin whose work has special resonance. Some of the people I have really been hooked on have been, besides Goldin, Richard Billingham, Larry Sultan, Araki, Mann. Do you think it was a coincidence that you and Alessandra Sanguinetti were accepted into Magnum in the same year (I believe) and both of you have these strong intimate projects really prominent in your portfolios? Alessandra having photographed the two cousins and you having produced Sabine? This is certainly not Magnum tradition, even though Larry Towel has a powerful portfolio of photos of his family from his farm, but its not typical Magnum subject matter. Is Magnum changing and will it be something totally different in 20 years time?

nigel amies

Thanks for your replies and your honesty Jacob - not only to my questions but others too. It takes a lot of time and energy being a'star,' I guess. But for the rest of us it's a learning experience and it's largely thanks to this blog that we have that opportunity.

I'm interested in what you say about having a feeling for a particular place. However, I don't think we can always get that just from protraits - specifically close-ups no matter how revealing or intimate they are. In your book you also have a few more general images of Tokyo scenes as a kind of balance - so we can at least say ' Oh yes, that's japan.' Otherwise, to me, the people could have been anywhere. They seemed more of Bangkok to me. Daido Moriyama uses some intimate close-ups but most all his work is very easily identifiable as being in and of japan. I don't know how necessary that is to the work, or what you want to say about the place. Maybe it's just my own superficiality.

Jacob Aue sobol

Dear Rich

About photographing and meeting people....You are right it is primarily my encounter with other people that motivates me as a photographer. Though I am a shy and inhibited person among strangers, I do not wish to be an outsider. I am a social human being and my photography is a social gesture; I am reaching my hand out to the surrounding world and the people I meet. The pictures are something that evolve from these meetings, but I do not think they are the primary. Though for the last couple of year I have become more focused on creating strong images as well. It is a dilemma because at the same time I know that the unpredictable and playful images in Sabine was only something I could create by not aiming at it – by being unconscious of what I was doing.

About Yuta....You are right, it is not very often I need an assistant at least never when I go out photographing. But there are lots of other things...research, working with lab and stores in Tokyo where no one speaks English, editing, printing, scanning etc. Yes, Yuta also introduced me to other students from Waseda univesity, which I got to know better and started photographing.

About changing plans....Again I feel quite unable to make any conscious choices concerning my photography. Every image I take is a picture of how I feel that day – my personal experience of a place and the the people who live there. I changed my plans of photographing families, because I fell in love with Sara and wanted to live with her in Tokyo. But since Sara worked all day I started to explore the city and in this way the emotions we shared in our relationship mostly appear in my images from the streets and in my meetings with strangers.

About Thailand....usually I meet people on my own in the streets, in a few occasions I have used
a student to help me connect to certain environments like the cock fighters....

Davin Ellicson

Jacob,

I'm curious where you might be headed next? Do you intend to continue to be itinerant for each major project that you do as opposed to basing yourself from home in Copenhagen and making trips out to photograph like so many photographers do. It seems to me that these really are two ways of living and working as a photographer. One way is total immersion and the other maybe more practical materials wise and photo world wise. I'm trying to make the full move to Bucharest, but I always end up needing to come back home for supplies or scanning or film or seeing editors etc. etc. etc.

Davin

Jason Hobbs

Hi Jacob,

I hope that is finds you well and happy. I was hoping to see your talk at the BJP's Vision Event, but unfortunately I couldn't make it. Do you have any plans to do any more talks or even have an exhibition in London?

Thanks,

Jason

Jacob Aue sobol

Robert,
I use Contax T3, Contax G2 and Ricoh Grs1.

Jacob Aue sobol

Hi Patricia,

At the school I went to in Copenhagen – Fatamorgana – The Danish school of Art Photography from the beginning I learned that photography can be used as a way of self-expression and a way to communicate with the world. But I really think it was my life in Greenland which had the greatest impact on how I work and think as a photographer today. As I wrote to Lucas it was when I started using my pocket camera in Greenland and photographing my personal life with Sabine that I really felt my photography evolved from showing to being. I was no longer waiting for the decisive moment or an extreme situation to dramatize my story. I did not photograph Sabine as she was taking a shower – I joined her with the camera. I took pictures of the moments and emotions I shared with Sabine and that I wanted to remember and keep with me. Sabine blowing me a kiss, Sabine laughing, Sabine jealous. From then I got used to this strong connection between my emotional life and the images I create. But I also photograph because I am curious. I am curious what the person on the other side of the street is thinking, how he/she lives and how he or she feels. I am always looking for someone I can relate to.

I am curious to see your work. Do you have a website?

Jacob Aue sobol

Hi Davin,

At the moment I am living in Copenhagen with Sara, but I am not sure where we will
be next year. I started photographing in Denmark because I obviously feel very strongly connected
to my native country. At the same time I am continuing my work in Bangkok...and then I always wanted to meet NY and the people...maybe now is the time.

Jacob Aue sobol

Nigel,

I think it is the same for most photographers. In the beginning you focus on all the things that are strange, exotic and make you feel different, but soon you start looking for the things that connects us. To me time is crucial. You can not be in a hurry if you want to show a deep interest in a foreign culture and its people. At the same time I can not see that my pictures from Tokyo look like Bangkok. Have you been there? The people, the streets, the mentality.... so different. And my portraits...many of the faces....so particular Japanese. You don't see faces like this any other place in the world. But yes - the few pictures that makes it obvious to us where we are are also important. Like in Greenland most of the images are horizontless, but then one picture (LON90430)....of the funeral. Even though it is not one of the stronger pictures it tells us something about the nature of this place, the isolation and the close relation between life and death.

Davin Ellicson

Jacob,

Can you tell me honestly what you think of this work?

Thank you.

Best,

Davin

anna

best,thank u,thias work like a trees!!

Geoffrey Hiller

Great thread!!! Before going to Japan in the summer of 2007 I also read Norwegian Wood. Fantastic book! So many of his themes are particularly Japanese - ways of looking at illness- and at the same time universal. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

A

Hi Jakob , i am curious to know ..what you think about the "Jante Law" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law

& the Danish novel "A fugitive crosses his tracks" ... i look forward to hear from you...

nikita

Dear Jacob,
Tokio and Bangkok are marvelous works for me.
So, can yuo tell me what are the films that you have used?
Thanks.
Best regards.

nik