Photography

A Cursory Glance

The works of some Japanese photographers are some of the most powerful works you’ll ever come across on Instagram. The way they play with light and darkness is itself an intrinsic part of the subject. It is a composition that intensifies, and in some instances, tells its own story - an artistic composition par excellence which is at once striking and gentle. As such, it is profoundly expressive and duly suited for the themes that are explored vis-a-vis alienation – mentally, socially and demographically – without ever losing touch with the beautiful.

A juxtaposition of a sense of comfort, coldness and isolation.
 Courtesy of Instagram. I do not own the copyright to this work.

Japan is considered to be a demographic time bomb for a reason. Its population crisis can quite easily be diagnosed as a “post-transition” stage in the classical demographic transition model. This post-transitional stage, in the evolutionary stages of population, is marked and marred by low birth and low death rates. As such, population growth declines. The average life span in Japan is 81 years for men and 89 years for women. An incredible feat indeed, however, its fertility rate is extremely low. As such over the last eight years Japan’s population has shrunk by more than one million people. This means a shrinking workforce as well as shrinking consumers. Naturally, this leads to a decline in its economy. Japan’s economy has now been in recession for over twenty years! This shrinking economy, according to Business Insider, has left Japan's younger generations with no time to care for their grandparents' generation. This has, in turn, led to an increase in crime rates, thus, turning some Japanese prisons into de facto nursing homes, as the elderly commit crimes just to be cared for.  Its GDP, however, is still the third-largest in the world.

            The reason for this low fertility rate is that people just aren’t having sex, and hence aren’t having kids. In fact, a large segment of the population hardly ever gets involved in any sort of intimate/romantic relationship. Sologamy is quite prevalent! When it comes to culture, tradition and social progress Japan is a walking paradox! Despite all its technological advancements, it remains one of the most conservative countries in the world. On the other hand, it is a society that has been completely permeated by individualism [that really has nothing to do with libertarianism].  The reason for this sort of social trend can be attributed to their work culture. Japan's labour market is designed for men to work [for extremely long hours] at one company their whole lives. But now women too have committed and integrated themselves into this incredibly tough culture, as such there literally isn’t much time for many people to have sex or commit themselves to relationships. It is very common for Japanese workers, still, the majority of men, to log 12- or 16-hour days. This has led to a rise in karoshi, or "death by overwork." In such a population where social engagements and intimacy have been pushed to the side, people are naturally lonely and mentally isolated – alienation. Japan is one of the leading countries in robotics, but their advances in this area are driven not only by a desire to be the leading innovator in the world but also by their sense of social alienation. They’re developing robots that could give care to human beings, to keep them company – a sort of remedy to their loneliness.

Despite the settings and all the signs on the glass, the work still feels cold and lonely.
Courtesy of Instagram. I do not own the copyright to this work.

            This theme of alienation is well explored by Japanese photographers, in my opinion, in many of the works that I’ve encountered on Instagram. This also explains their fascination with portraiture. Sometimes they would play with perception itself by manipulating the subject to background framework without ever abandoning the simplicity [of the subject], and this amounts to some truly stunning visuals. The simplicity of the subject is one of the defining characteristics of these artists. Even in cases in which they subscribe to the subject to background norm, they do it so in such a fashion that evokes loneliness, a sense of isolation and alienation [even when it’s a picture of a crowd, which is rare] and a certain sense of coldness. They do this in two separate ways. Firstly, they appeal and evoke such reaction by contrasting darkness and light, which, as mentioned before is at once gentle and striking. They manage to achieve this feat even without subscribing to portraiture. Secondly, they take on, in a sense or two, a more optimistic attitude by confirming life [by subscribing to light and omitting darkness]. However, even in such cases, the composition of the light is such that it somehow still invokes a sense of coldness and a sense of extreme isolation and alienation – their current condition of existence. A world marked by extreme individualism, technological advancement and abundance, and yet, the people are “finally, achingly and beautifully alone”. Their works are a mediation of genuine human personalities and the condition of existence to which these personalities are situated. Observing these works gives you the same sort of sensation that you get when looking at say an Edward Hopper. This could either be an intentional or unintentional exposition of the cultural unconscious that is reflective of the current population crisis. Either way, they make for some absolutely stunning visuals.

Despite the excesses of light, you still sense a sense of coldness and isolation.
Courtesy of Instagram. I do not own the copyright to this work.

             This would be a good juncture to make some passing remarks on Mizo photography which, in my opinion, is the epitome of ignorance and banality. In terms of technicalities, Mizo photographers are lagging far behind, and in terms of subjects and themes, well, they’re a nonentity, and not for lack of trying. Mizo photographers read way too little for their works to be interesting. All they’ve ever known they know through the vistas of pop culture. As such, all their works are one pop culture cliché after another – boring and uninteresting! The more they try to explore a theme, the more their works become pretentious, frankly bordering on the illicit and the indecorous. Breaking social norms doesn’t necessarily mean you’re artistic, rather it simply means you are ignorant, mediocre and don’t really have any taste.

    Another thing I’d like to briefly touch upon is the public’s reception of works by some Mizo photographers, specifically works that have rural children as their subjects. Our adoration for pictures of dirty poor children in rural settings, showing genuine emotion/happiness in the face of poverty is, in my opinion, a misplaced cultural unconscious. For one thing, these pictures are really well-done portraitures, and they have beautifully captured that childhood naiveté that romantics adore so much. They’re beautiful pieces no doubt. However, our adoration for such works has two layers to it; firstly, we romanticise childhood and rural settings [classic romantic symptoms], and in so doing romanticise poverty. We falsely identify ourselves and observe our own childhood in the works. At this juncture, instead of being appalled by the exposition of poverty and the growing gap between the rich/urban and the poor/rural, our sensation towards such subjects is “those were the days”! This is an absolutely false identification. Secondly, there’s this highly naive notion that such rural settings and such children are somewhat primitive to us and are hence culturally and socially purer. We ascribe a cultural purity – a Mizona-ness to the subject of such photography. So our admiration and adoration for such works are really misplaced unconscious cultural expressions! Such rural settings, such poverty, such childhood naiveté aren’t necessarily primitive, and they aren’t necessarily purer – such reactions are just our ignorance and naiveté.