Skylines/Nipponikong
June 16th, 2009It is with great pleasure to announce two new photographic works titled Skylines and Nipponikong by Tokyo Beats photographers Manny and Zebrio respectively. These works are brought to you by our dear friends at the Association Bricolages Ondulatoires et Particulaires (BOP) until September 15th.
Please enjoy…
Skylines by Manny Santiago
Skylines is a photographic work in progress focussing on the communities in which we reside and the lines, sometimes invisible sometimes not, that connect us. This project began in 2007 documenting how we build, maintain, layout and see ourselves within the macro and micro of the largescale communities in which we move to and fro, work and live, love and kill. Suggesting not only what we see before us but also the larger nature of the cities and societies we make as well as the reverberations which spread outward from the center. I remain fascinated by exploring new places with and without my camera, while continually documenting how we build upon the worlds of our fathers and mothers. I would eventually like to catalog as many places as possible.
Nipponikong by Brian Scott Peterson
My first trip to Tokyo in 2004 shared something in common with my first trip to Hong Kong the same year. They were both love at first sight (and smell, touch, taste and sound), everything from the ancient temples to the still very alive food. From a western perspective, particularly an American one, the cities are as unfamiliar and outlandish as they come. There is nothing that can be done to prepare oneself for the bombardment of peculiarities found in the open markets or down the less traveled alleys of both. With the enigmas I continue to find around every corner comes a deepening curiosity in the social and urban latticework that make up both of these unique cities. And the deeper I dig into each of the cultures and cityscapes, the more surprises I come to find, and the less I realize I actually know them. Yet, in this perpetual disorientation have I begun to recognize a reciprocity and a harmony that rings throughout Tokyo and Hong Kong, like a taut thread connected to the belly button of the orient. It is as if they are twins, fraternal albeit, separated by a sea at birth.
For this recent project, I have attempted to visually elucidate my journey, the hole I have dug, through the two cities, and record the continuities and congruencies that run throughout by stacking them on top of each other on film. Opting to use multiple exposures attempts to highlight the surprises one never ceases to find.