Eisuke Asaoka Interview

LIGHT BOXES Interview with Eisuke Asaoka


14 Oct 2019 15:45

Light Boxies (LB )

When did you first become interested in photography?



Eisuke Asaoka(A)

I was 20 years old.



LB : Did you have an impetus?



A: I saw a picture on the Internet and thought it was cool.



LB : What was the picture of?



A: It was taken by an amateur, but it's nothing.

Around 2000, when the Internet was just beginning to be available,
it was popular to create your own website and write a diary on it.
I like to go around every night looking at them, not knowing who is writing or making them.

So I rented a rental server like I did, and without telling my friends or anyone,
I created a website and wrote a diary. And I posted links to sites I liked, and that was the only community I had.

Back then, there was no system like a blog, so you had to come up with the page design yourself.
So I looked around at other people's pages, and the sites that used photos in their designs were really cool.
At the time, it was normal to go to a website of a material store and borrow button materials, background wallpaper, and so on, and design with copyright-free materials,

but there was a rare website in that store that uploaded photos.

He said it would be really cool to use it to design a design with pictures in it. At that time, there was only film, and film scanners cost about 300,000 yen,　so there weren't many people doing it. Among them, some peculiar people sometimes put their photos on the net, asking people to use them freely without copyright.

Even when you look at them, the amount of information in the photos is so different that the moment you see them, your eyes are glued to them. A sense of solidity and depth.

I quickly incorporated the photos of strangers into my own page. I was doing something like pinning a photo to the background and scrolling just the text over it, which is cool. That was my first encounter with photography.

Then, my brother was working at a used camera store, so he gave me a camera that he didn't use, and I started taking pictures. It's a hobby at all.

Moreover, I had been playing in a band since then and didn't have much part-time work, so I didn't have much money. If you go into a music studio to practice for a band, you have to pay for the studio and you have to pay for the live shows.



LB: At that time, the main one was the band man?



A: The band is the main one. And then I went to school, and then I went to work after I graduated, and that was the second one, and I used that time and money to take pictures. So I accumulated a lot of un-developed film, and it wasn't very good at all.



LB:How long were you doing it then?



A:It was like that for six or seven years, and from 2000 to 2006 it was like that. Maybe?



LB :And how did you get assisted by Mr. Fujishiro?



A :There were phases, but first I thought about quitting the company I was working for around 2006. At that time, there were days when I would take pictures on my lunch break at work with a 500,000 or 1,000,000-pixel camera at the time, and I couldn't take a single-lens reflex camera with me.

I was doing that every day, and when I thought about quitting the company, I decided that I wanted to do photography properly. Then, on my days off from work, I went to work as an assistant to a photographer I met on mixi, and he told me that if I was going to do it properly, I should join a studio. So I went into Shoto Studio.
I met Mr. Meisa Fujishiro when he came to Shoto Studio for a photo shoot. That's how I got to be an assistant.



LB : Didn't you like famous photographers or something?



A: I liked Mr. Fujishiro. At first, I didn't want to follow him as an assistant because I liked him as a writer, or anything like that. But when I heard that he came to my neighborhood and said he was looking for an assistant, I reflexively said, "Yes! like that. At that moment, the people around me were pulling back and saying, "Yes! Yes! like that.



LB : Were you doing a monthly series when you were working for Mr. Fujishiro and Asaoka?



A: Yes. Hana haruna and Mamoru Asana.



LB : I see, when I was an assistant, I hadn't joined the monthly magazine Haruka Igawa yet, but it was after that that I stayed mostly with Ms. Fujishiro.

Mr. Fujishiro is going fast, the atmosphere is tense, and there's a sense of tension that other photographers don't have. That's it. I don't have a tingling feeling that I have to concentrate so much.

It was amazing at the time. It's like, "Don't let anyone in.



A: There are times when it's just the two of you, right?

Even the film change is done through the gap in the door.



LB: At that time, the two that left an impression on me were Mr. Fujishiro and Mr. Nobuyoshi Araki. When I saw Araki-san, I thought, "Huh? Huh? I thought. I wonder what people have been up to now. I thought to myself.



A: What made you feel that way the most?



LB :I used a tripod to shoot, but I was drinking champagne from the beginning with the actress. Then we started shooting, and it was all slippery, and I think we were wearing clogs at the time.

Crunching, crunching, crunching with a film camera.



A: Raise the tension.



LB : We were in a studio, and all of a sudden he went on the ladder like a buzzard and started shooting from above. What's that? like that. It's a little too different from what we've seen before. I'm sure you'll be able to see the difference between the two. Ninagawa was the first one when she was

Mika Ninagawa puts everything into it. It's a completely different world.

It was interesting to watch because it's a writer and the authorship comes out. It was great to see a different person every time.



A:That's a valuable experience.



LB : I felt that it's no good being a photographer together if you don't have the personality of the person themselves.



A: When I had a photo exhibition at Rainy Day in Nishi-Azabu in 2016, I invited Fujishiro-san to do a talk show. At that time, in the Q&A corner, I asked why the picture of you and Master are not similar. There was a question about it.

At the time, I thought I was influenced by the portraits I took, the way I communicated with people, the way I composed myself. But at the time, I couldn't answer that question well. In hindsight, I can only say that it's because we are different...



LB : In Japan, it's a characteristic that you have to be with everyone. Nationally.

But if you have to do something, you have to show your individuality and you have to be different from the rest. You do the same thing like a salaryman.

It's hard to do as a creator.

When you ask that person to do something for you, it means that you are a writer. For example, I was filming William Klein the other day when he came to Japan. You know how he looked like Asaoka?



A: Oh, is that so? I'm not at all aware of it.



LB : The poshness is the artist's character.



A: I think that photographs are meant to be taken instead of published.



LB : I can't help it, but it makes everyone put on a habit that they have to do this way.



A: That's what happens when you try to shoot with willpower alone, isn't it? There was a time when I was influenced by Ms. Fujishiro's style at first, so I copied her and took pictures, but in the end, the moment you press the shutter, or what you're thinking about until then, is all different, so even if you just imitate the shape, you'll end up with a different picture, and it's unnatural.

I was told by a designer I know. I tried contacting girls I didn't know, and taking pictures of girls who had applied for the job for the first time, but I was basically shy of people. Even if a person like that took a portrait of a girl he found on a dating site, he would try

I was fine with that, but I wondered if this was really a picture of you? He told me. I don't know. I thought this was just me, but maybe there was a part of me that was admiring your style.

So, for the 2016 exhibition I mentioned earlier, I didn't do portraits, just landscapes. And then that designer came along and said, this is it! He said. I didn't say that you were dark, alone, and shy... I said it was good because it showed a lot of emotion.



LB : But Mr. Daido Moriyama is pretty similar in some ways, and he and Asaoka have a good distance between them. Things, landscapes, and so on. What I'm shooting is completely different. The sense of distance is interesting.



A: I like the one with the color (Kagerow).



LB : For example, Mr. Araki has a strong sense of distance, and Mr. Moriyama's good point is that he seems to be retracting his sense of distance.



A: In the beginning, when I was just starting out, there wasn't much work when I started working, so when I went to show my books, the response was not so good.

I think I was taking pictures that I didn't want to take. It was taken at a different distance from the one I had, so I tried to force myself to get closer...



LB : It comes out pretty clearly.



A: Yes, that's right. So there was a period of time when I had a shyness complex, like a curse, when I was just making my debut.

Mr. Fujishiro is the kind of person who is called a natural talent, so he will never be able to do the same thing. Because people are different. And then one day I finally realized it. You can't take both a close-up photo and a close-in photo at the same time, right? I finally realized one day that I just needed to shoot at a distance that fit my sense of distance, and it became a lot easier from there.



LB : This sense of distance is what makes him an artist.

It gives you a sense of distance that only that person can achieve. Whether it's a person or a landscape.



A : It depends on whether you can be aware of it or not.

If I kept doing my own style with that wrong, it would become a little unnatural. I read Henri Cartier-Bresson's book and was quite encouraged by it. Bresson's portraits are great, but I don't like people, and I don't seem to be very good at communication. Mr. Fujishiro and Mr. Araki get into their subjects and bring out their expressions.



LB : In the case of Araki-san, it's more like he's involved.



A:In general, portraits are great when people relax and let their true inner expressions come out, aren't they? I've always thought so too, but Bresson says that the real face of a person is when you just met them, or when they're not aware of you, or when they're not aware of you, or when they don't feel open to you. When I take portraits, I try to get the closest to the true nature of the person I'm photographing, like the moment when I open the door and the expression that comes out when I start to open up after talking to them is not the real person. I was thinking that this was a sincere attempt to lose (laughs), but even if it was an open door, I thought that if the president of Magnum Photos had said it, it would have been better. Oh, I think I have such an idea, and that's one of the things that made it a lot easier. I've come to affirm my sense of distance.



LB : You're the one who made the King's Road, like the European Magnum.

Yeah, sure.



A:I think the capacity was a little bit too much. You have to communicate with people. It's human.

Bresson is kind of the opposite of that. He used to take pictures with an extraordinary sense of composition, composition and timing.



LB : The people of Europe in the 1900's and the people of today are changing...with the Hiromix in the 90's and Kotori Kawashima -san in 2010, there's been a lot of change in the way we look at things. And more and more...

This photo shows how easy it is to use.

It used to be more for people who liked the photography industry.

Now there are a lot of strange people like Ryan and Terry Richardson, and there are photographers who are able to involve the general public.



A:Does that mean worldwide?



LB : Yeah, yeah.



A: What do you think of the current trends?

Has Ryan been around for the last 10 years or so? Terry Richardson has been around a long time, hasn't he?



LB : About the same. Terry's a little closer.

I had a baby.



A: There was a scandal, too.

Stop it. What are you doing now?



LB : I think you're working under a name change.

There are a lot of people over there who change their names to work.

or without credit.

That's because they can't sell their work if it's advertised.

Bruce Weber also does a lot of advertising, but his work doesn't sell, or at least the price doesn't go up.



A: Does that mean I can't use the photos in my ads?



LB : It's not that you can't use it, it's just that you can't sell photos like that.



A: Because it's not a work?



LB: Yeah, yeah. But Bruce Weber is a good person, after all. It's kind of interesting. Just your butt.



A: Bruce Weber in the 90s?



LB :90's.

But Asaoka-kun, where did you film William Klein's most recent one, the one in the wheelchair?



A: That's 21_21.

There were about 20 cameramen squirming next to me. It was like a press conference.



LB : And that one? Heh!



A: At the opening of the press conference, William Klein comes out and speaks. I'd be pushed out in a wheelchair, and we'd talk and then have a photo session. There was a photographer around here. I wanted to shoot in the front, so I went into the front and William Klein was holding a camera, the Alpha 99, which Sony gave me, and he was shooting it with a wide-angle lens for the 20 or 30 people in front of me who were squatting the whole time. I thought, "I'm sure I'm in this! It's like shooting it head-on again.



LB : William Klein is kind of a big name.



A:I'm 90 years old now.



LB:But the interesting thing about that guy is that he was like that in the beginning, but then he switched over in the middle. Filming and so on. Eventually, though, we went back to normal. I'm still in Brooklyn, and it's still a photo book, and it's still funny.



A:The color of that one is good. In color.



LB : This was originally black and white, but I went with color all at once, giving it a realistic feel.

It's pretty raw.



A: And he was already in a wheelchair at that time, right?

That's why the angle is so low. I'm sorry.



LB : That's interesting in its own way. It's good that Araki has lost one of his eyes, too.



A: That's how we fight.



LB :Even if you lose something, like you said earlier, your complex becomes a weapon. If you think your complex is a complex, you can't move forward, but when you point it out to me like you did earlier, I realize that this is who you are, and I'm moving forward.



A: Well, yeah.

It's like anything. Maybe that's what makes them unique.

Triangles and circles are different shapes.

There's no point in longing for a circle...



LB : They're all different, but they can't be the same.

Some people like anime, some people like idols, and so on.

It's just that I'm castrated in the middle of it.



A:In that sense, what are your strengths, LB?



LB : I don't know myself.

I'm just doing what I want to do. It's hard to say.



A:I was talking to someone the other day, and I was thinking. We've been talking like this for a long time, haven't we? I've been doing okay lately, but after talking for an hour or two, there's a moment when I suddenly can't hear what the other person is saying.

We were talking quite a bit, and we were in the midst of a serious high point, but I couldn't hear him for a moment, and he was thinking about something else.



LB : You're completely out of your mind already, aren't you?



A: Maybe so.



LB : Does that mean you can't shoot photos for a long time?



A: No, that's not what I'm saying.

I participate in the reading unit of Motoyuki Shibata and other literary figures, so I have a lot of opportunities to photograph their readings. I don't know if I should say this, but there was a moment when I realized that I hadn't gotten the content of the reading into my head. I'm concentrating on the voice, the feel of the words, and the visuals, but sometimes the words don't come into my head when they're printed. That's why I don't have the meaning in my head.

LB : There's nothing wrong with that, isn't there?



A: It's good, though. But I have friends who casually listen to the conversations of people who are talking around, and then later say, "Oh, he said that! You listen to all the details! I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not.  I think they can't hear as well as normal people.

I know it sounds a bit contrived, but photographs are straightforward without any of that. It's easy to see at a glance. I don't know, I don't understand.  I thought it would be easier because I didn't need to build it up with words and think about it. Photo. That's why I liked music, too.  There's a Japanese word for "indescribable", but when you're really moved or wowed, there's no words to describe it.



LB : I'm the same way, but I'm not really interested in anything I'm not interested in at all.

I think that's what makes them unique.



A:I'm interested in it. I'm interested, but I can't hear it.



LB : You're not interested, so you're not listening.



A:No, no, I'm interested in it.



LB : I think it's pretty obvious that human concentration is up to here.



A:I think it's probably both. Maybe I'm the type of person who has trouble processing the language of the voices and words I've been hearing physically, physically.

I'm interested, and I'm willing to listen.



LB : Do you still film live shows or readings more often?



A:I haven't shot that many live shows lately. Mariko Goto has always been able to go to the shoots, but also downy, VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE, and Kojima Keitany Love.

But I didn't really want to be an expert in live photography to begin with. Of course, it depends on the subject, but every time you're shooting at a live house, there's a certain angle and the lighting is left up to the lighting, and sometimes you get bored with that. It's like I'm shooting from the side with the artist and the audience, so the artist is definitely the best, and the audience is the second best. Of course, artists are treated as equals, including backstage, but on stage, too.

Of course, that's what makes it fun, but it's fundamentally different from the kind of photos I'm going to show here, of course. I'll never be able to play the leading role.



LB : When it comes to work, for example, in photo books, there are actresses and idols who play the leading roles, and because it's a product, you have to be able to see it well.

So you're saying it's better not to?



A:I think I probably mixed up my public and private life.

But it was almost like my life's work, and I've been taking pictures since I was a band member, so there was a time when I wasn't so sure about it. I think I got mixed up in that too, and there were moments when I was in a live house for my own self-realization, and I didn't like the fact that I didn't show up at those times. Right now, I'm doing it a little more evenly. On the other hand, if I'm asked to work for an artist I don't know, I enjoy shooting them at all. Of course.



LB : Back to what I said earlier... William Klein's press conference...



A:You can't see it, can you? LOL.

There should have been as many photographers as there were there in the world. Photo by William Klein.



LB : It's still a good picture.



A: Glad to hear it!



LB : It's not a press conference at all.



A:There are some things that are more close to the face, but the one that was adopted was the one of the draw. I was featured in Coyote magazine.



LB : It probably won't happen in Japan.



A:You can't come here anymore.

I'm 90 years old.



LB : I went to a talk show and I really wanted to hear William Klein talk, but it was mostly an office talk and I had to listen to a bunch of insignificant people talk, and at the end he came out.



A:Physical strength, too. I knew it. I think the people around me are very concerned about it.

He's a mischievous person, isn't he?



LB : He also signed my autograph. I was able to take pictures normally, and I thought I couldn't take any pictures at all.

When I saw the picture of Asaoka, I thought it was amazing when I first saw it, but it was an unexpected press conference!



A: It doesn't look like a press conference.



LB : But I think that's what's good about it.

Recently, Yamatani's photos are of raves, for example, but the fact that he doesn't look like a rave is a reflection of his personality.

It only looks like a picture of the person. The photos have a personality that makes you wonder how they're taken.



A:Thank you very much. That's a nice compliment. I'm not at all aware of it.



LB : For example, if Katsuo Hanzawa shot William Klein, I think he'd get very close to him. I'll take a proper portrait. I was sitting in a wheelchair and I had gray hair and a cane.

I had a world view.





A:The selection was good. Designer's.

I was pushing the side. I think I chose the one with Klein's New York photo because there are so many exhibition halls around, so I think I chose the one with Klein's New York photo.

There was a place where it was printed and pasted on the wall.  Print on blocks or something like that.



LB : There was a multivision in the pavilion at the Osaka World's Fair in the '70s, and it had a lot of visuals of things that William Klein had done up to that point, and there were a lot of blocks. I think that's probably it.



A:There was a big picture of New York on the wall.



The end time is coming and it's forced out.

LB : A:

Thank you so much for today! LOL.

Thanks for reading all the way through.

An ofset print of Eisuke Asaoka's photo, signed by him, is now on sale here.

https://pierrerecord.thebase.in/items/7150651