Seiji Kurata, Flash up
by Xavier Encinas
Flash Up by Seiji Kurata is one of the most exciting photographic excursions into the seedy parts of 1970s Tokyo.
Kurata, a natural who began his photographing career doing workshops with revered greats such as Daido Moriyama and Araki Nobuyoshi, takes us on a journey through the nightclub scene of Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, he shows us glimpses of the cocky, tattooed yakuza underworld and of violent Bosozoku street fights, contrasts car crash victims with portraits of nightclub hostesses and the horny salarymen groping them for money, documents ultra-right wingers in Meiji Jingu and on tour in the countryside.
“I was earnestly seeking the medium for my expression, but had not yet found the answer. Surely I was being drawn inexorably into the world of television, about to join forever the legions of zombies.”
DISCOVER MORE STORIES
-
Wim Wenders, Paris Texas
New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard.
-
Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train
Aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntled British immigrant all converge in the city of dreams—which, in Mystery Train, from Jim Jarmusch, is Memphis.
-
Bharat Sikka, Hollywood Mumbai
Bharat Sikka pays homage to Indian cinema, reviving a long-lost dream amid the textured streets of Mumbai