I went to Hikarie Hall in Shibuya to see the exhibition of photographs entitled “Tokyo Camera Club 2022”, which will be held offline for the first time in three years.
It is a good opportunity to see and study about 700 popular and powerful works, including a joint exhibition by 10 generations of the “Tokyo Camera Club 10 Selections” from 2012 to 2021.
The venue was free to take pictures and post them on social networking sites, so I took pictures without hesitation with my Lumix GF10.
I took only this passive photo to avoid being caught in the shot unexpected appearance of something. But actually the venue was quite crowded with exhibiting authors and their acquaintances, visitors like me, and people from the various sponsoring organizations.
I had previously understood that the “Tokyo Camera Club” was a coterie that collected a vast amount of good quality photos posted on Facebook. However, it was not until this visit that I learned that it is a business entity that connects photographers, local governments, tourism businesses, and equipment suppliers. Perhaps that is why the average age of the visitors was so young for a “coterie photo exhibition,” and the atmosphere was very lively.
※The Facebook homepage of Tokyo Camera Club is here
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Yokosuka City, for example, is trying to attract tourism and revitalize the local community with “taking pictures” as its axis. They also distribute walking maps for photographers, which is fun and appreciated. Many other local governments and tourism businesses also exhibited, and many areas held photo contests.
Perhaps it is because I see this as an exhibition of works amidst the swell of business and local politics, but the works on display as representative works have, to my taste, a slightly too extravagance flavor on average. Of course, there are many good and powerful works that attract a large number of visitors, and many of them are unquestionably admirable. The respect for the artists and their works is strong, and although there is a business flavor to the venue, it does not have a “stinky” feel.
The latest photo book sold at the venue
![写真との出会いは、世界との出会いだ。 [ 東京カメラ部 ]](https://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/book/cabinet/5604/9784863135604_1_2.jpg?_ex=128x128)
I had a short conversation at the venue with Ryota Otake, one of the “10 picks” for 2021″ featured in the front of this volume. Mr. Otake’s work, “Unexplored Railroads,” was truly wonderful, and I was so impressed that I couldn’t help but talk to the artist himself. He said he had only been using a camera for a few years, and to think that someone with that kind of career could produce such a wonderful body of work was both encouraging and embarrassing…
The exhibition at Hikarie Hall has already ended, but there should still be a few days left for the online exhibition, so please be sure to check out the “Unexplored Railway” and the other works.
On my way home after leaving the venue, I suddenly saw a small flower bed in the streets of Shibuya and Aoyama. Small and neat, what a flower!
The world and the level of the “unexplored railroad” are very different from those but capturing these small insights is one of the joys of photography. I hope to continue taking photographs steadily and happily.
