#zuisha

[tokyo-camera-style]

I like cameras, but I like photography even more- 

you can find three of my books available on shashasha.co here.

Nebraska, The Good Life ( Ken’s Books, 2023 )

銀園 Tokyo Silver Paradise ( Zen Foto Gallery, 2022 )

随写 Zuisha ( ZenFoto Gallery, 2017 )

[tokyo-camera-style]

I exhibited Zuisha Vol. 21 at Totem Pole Photo Gallery in early December (2020).  Usually I have two or three shows from this series in a year but 2020 was unlike most and before I knew it, a full year had passed since vol.20. 

The pictures in this show didn’t represent the “best” of that year- and (as usual) they didn’t really try to explain anything that had happened, either.  The pandemic sure wasn’t something I wanted to try and explicitly figure out with a camera- or even worse, make some broad authoritative statement about.  (shrugs)

But- - because I photograph the world, and it had affected the world, things showed up in the pictures. 

I did spent too much time in 2020 looking at screens and the internet’s only getting worse--  but creating & looking at these pictures/prints was invigorating and this experience set me up with both a greater love of photography and an even stronger determination to keep going. 2021: BRING IT.

[tokyo-camera-style]

Zuisha Vol. 19  /  随写 vol.19

John Sypal  @  Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Tokyo

January 29 - February 3, 2019

[tokyo-camera-style]

     The first time the earliest of these pictures were exhibited was under the title An Endless Attraction.   I felt it a proper summary of my feelings for her, and for photography itself. It’s about photographing life and living through photographing- all without having to think of any of these things as separate issues.      In his succinct yet sublime book "A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics,"   Donald Richie explains a literary genre called zuihitsu. It’s a type of informal essay created through an approach where it is not "the assumptions of the writer's controlling mind that are followed but, as the Japanese phrase it, the brush itself."       I think the camera makes a pretty good brush. - John Sypal

この「随写」シリーズのルーツは、もともと2010年頃に“An Endless Attraction”というタイトルの展覧会で発表したのが始まりだった。日本語で言うと「永遠の魅力」か、「永遠の誘惑」という感じ。直接過ぎるかもしれないけど、彼女と写真に対して完璧に表現できていると思った。特に「永遠」の部分。 写真は人生じゃないといけないんだ。シャッターを押しながら、愛、人生、写真、それぞれを区別できなくなってきた。でもこれでいいんだ。私が見たい写真を飽きずに撮る。 「随写」は自分で作ったことばだ。ドナルド・リッチーの『A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics』という本で日本のエッセイである「随筆」の説明を初めて読んだ時、こんなことが書いてあった。「作家の支配的な心を後から筆がフォローするのではなく、筆が心をリードするものだ」。それで随筆の「筆」をとって、写真の「写」を勝手にくっ付けてみた。 カメラはなかなかいい筆になる。 ―ジョン・サイパル

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Title:  随写　Zuisha

Author: John Sypal

Publisher: Zen Foto Gallery, Tokyo (Dec. 2017)

Book Size: 182 x 257 mm, softcover

Pages: 56 pages, 52 images

ISBN: 978-4-905453-59-8

Online orders available here 

[tokyo-camera-style]

Exhibition announcement: 

随写 vol. 19 / Zuisha vol.19

ジョン サイパル / John Sypal

Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku

January 29 - February 3, 2019  (12:00-19:00)

[tokyo-camera-style]

Many sincere thanks to all who’ve purchased a copy of my photobook Zuisha this past year- It was a humbling yet pleasant surprise to see it ranked as the top selling title in 2018 on shashasha- the online store for photobooks direct from Japan. 

Copies of the book are still available here. 

[tokyo-camera-style]

Exhibit:  Zuisha vol.18  随写 vol.18

Who: John Sypal

Where: Totem Pole Photo Gallery, Shinjuku

When:  Aug.14 - 19, 2018 (open 12-7pm)

Part eighteen of at least twenty, these photos were shot from late December 2017 to July 2018. It’s the first proper Zuisha show I’ve done since Zen Foto Gallery’s publication of my book (available on shashasha here). Certainly that experience informed the edit of this latest show.   

Also, for the first time in this series I’ve included a few photos taken with a date-stampable compact camera. Lens-wise, these Konica Big Mini images technically hold their own against two different Leica Summicrons (breaking almost even with the Aspherical version but surpassing the V4 easily). 

[tokyo-camera-style]

Signing more copies of my book Zuisha for the upcoming Shanghai Art Book Fair.  This book and bunch of Zen Foto's other great publications will be available at the fair on June 22 - 24 Shanghai @ O ART CENTER M50. Unfortunately I can't attend the fair, but I suggest that all photography fans in Shanghai check it out! Thanks!

為即將到來的上海藝術書展展出的《隨寫》簽名中！這本書和其他禪藝廊出版的超棒攝影集將前往上海 @shanghaiartbookfair . 大家可在禪藝廊的攤位 B16 購得。可惜我無法親自前往，但我誠摯邀請各位上海的攝影迷務必check it out囉！謝謝