Softcover, catalogue for exhibition in)(between record vol. 6 (5.12.2013 - 14.1.2014). You can order it at inbetweengallery.

With works by Hiroki Nakamura, Kouji Nishioka, Hiroyoki Oda, Makoto Okawa, Yasuyuki Ueno, Mami Yoshikawa. In collaboration with Tatsuya Hirabayashi, Bo-Kyung Chun, Takehiko Nakafuji, Gilles Roudière, Yang Seung-Woo, Kotaro Yokomizo. With support by Takako Shiraiwa, Yoshiaki Kasatani, Photographer’s laboratory, Masahiko Maruyama, Yoichiro Sezaki, Ritsuko Tagawa.

Brut Photography 

A unique project to introduce six Brut Artists to silver gelatin traditional photography

My personal interest in Japanese photography and brut artists (unfortunately; conventionally referred as mentally handicapped artists) lead me to start this project. 
After discovering the cooperation in between Masahiko Maruyama a Japanese fashion designer (Nude Inc.) and Yoshiaki Kasatani president of “Pr-y.org” to design a line of clothing with patterns printed from drawings by KOJI NISHIOKA a Brut Artist from the Atelier Corners in Osaka Japan, I decided to proposed to Yoshiaki Kasatani to cooperate with me, he introduced me to Mrs. Takako Shiraiwa Director of the Atelier Corners and her husband Mr. Ikuo Shiraiwa Co-director.

For the project I provided six Brut Artists with three point-and-shoot cameras and two rolls of film for each one; gave them some basic technical instructions on how to operate the cameras and load the rolls of films. Avoiding influencing them in any way I did not provide any guidelines on what to photograph, they were free to photograph anything anytime they felt like. Some of them took one day to shot one roll of film some took over a month.

During the project, I contacted various renowned and junior Japanese photographers and asked for their opinion about the project, their reactions were all supportive, and many offered to participate, some with their advice for making this book, some by designing and making this book possible, others hand-making photographs for the first exhibition during Dec-2013 at in)(between gallery in Paris France.

As suggested by professional photographers and publishers, in this book we show all of the photographs, 419 in total, in the same order that they were taken revealing the artistic sensitivity of the Brut Photographers, uninfluenced by any social or institutional aesthetic tendencies. 

Instinctive raw works that accidentally yet very realistically documented fragments of their daily lives; somehow resembling the traditional Japanese “photography” style characteristic of works of contemporary artists such as Daido Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki and many others; even though, this book does not intent to draw a parallel between these raw photographs and works by any of the professional photographers.

The Brut Photographers 

“They are not photographers, as we define photographers”, they are six Brut Artists with unique mental functionalities conventionally referred as “mental handicap”

Making the book 

In May-April 2013, I went to Tokyo to meet again with Daido Moriyama and Akio Nagasawa and to show them the final photographs and a dummy book and to ask for their advice on how to publish/make a book, if I should group the photographs by type “portraits, still life, street photography, etc..) their answer was no need to group them, just show all of them in the order they were taken as in the dummy book, and that was what we did with GRAF Publishers.

In Nov-2013, in Paris during Paris Photo I contacted Hiroki Matsui from GRAF Publishers, Japan, and immediately him and the others Graf members say yeas we can make the book, (Shuhei Motoyama, Toshiyasu Nishikido, Ryo Katayama and Norihiko Kikuchi). Hiroki and I designed the book as simple as possible, I made the cover, a simple drawing on a negative, and they produced the final book which was offset printed by Inuuniq Co in Japan.

Organizing the exhibition at in)(between gallery

Holding an exhibition was part of my original idea, for that I needed many handmade prints, so I contacted some professional photographers. In Tokyo: Tatsuya Hirabayashi from Japan (photographers’ lab in Tokyo), Takehiko Nakafuji from Japan, and Yang Seung-Woo from South Korea; in Germany: Gilles Roudier from France, they all say yes right away and freely selected the photographs they would make for the exhibition; in Paris: photographers Kotaro Yokomizo from Japan and Bo Kyung Chun from South Korea made the 12 contact sheets which were part of the exhibition.

Comments around the project

Takehiko Nakafuji: I was moved to see that the artists of Atelier Corners pushed the shutter the trigger so softly guided by their instincts and physical reactions. Their photographs/Images without explanation embarked on my eyes and remind me with surprise and joy of the first pictures of my childhood. The scenes they photographed (maybe triggered by their brains’ right hemisphere), are full of the essential charms of snapshots.

Yang Seung – Woo: I have wanted to see the places where these photographers took their photos.

Gilles Roudiere: When I met him, Luigi did not take long to tell me about the project " Brut Photography "and it got my curiosity. After he showed me the final product of the exercise, only twelve films for six different authors, I was amazed and acquired his enthusiasm. These six amateur photographers made ​​unclassifiable images, often very strong and disturbingly, surprisingly close to the characteristic photography/documentary style in Japan. Which for me was the result of learning , or perhaps unlearning (fuzzy , Décadrages, subjectivity ...) , All of that characteristic Japanese photography style was summarized by their photographs in front of my eyes, and more than a coincidence, it was obviously , spontaneous and sincerely BRUT.

Daido Moriyama: These photographs are the condensation of the principle of photography. In these photographs; there is everything about the photography that I think of.

Ritsuko Tagawa (writer): Photography of innate sensitivity

They are not photographers, as we define photographers.

They took the photographs as they do see and do feel the world, without any preprogramed intention or aim.

Because we normally are not free to step away from who/what we are, we understand well how hard to take a photograph or to express oneself as we feel could be.

A highly-reputed Japanese photographer after staring closely at these photographs, “their photographs” said:  “They are the condensation of the principle of photography.

In these photographs; there is everything about the photography that I think of.”

By reacting to an instant/moment, to someone, to passing time, or to a space, they captured the scenes in front of their eyes…it is not thinking but sensitivity.

Without pre-thinking of what to capture, how to do it, or how to show it, why can their photographs be so vivid and realistic?

Being inspired by their photographs, we easily think again “what is photography? What is human expression? 

(A charity project, all book and prints sales will finance the continuity of BRUT PHOTOGRAPHY)

Pages: 200+
Place: Paris
Year: 2013
Publisher: galerie in)(between
Size: 21 x 15 cm (approx.)

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