Hello, it's Machuko@- the admin.
We are starting a new project called "SENSE"!
It is a content-based project in which each time a photographer or an artist who uses the GR will share with you in a video and an article what "photograph" and "snap" mean to them, how they face them, as well as what they see through their camera. Updates are irregular. You will love them.
The first photographer is TOMAS H. HARA!
Please take your time and look at the article as well as the video (subtitles are available).
I may have fallen in love with the country of Japan, the city of Tokyo, and the streets of Shibuya. Just as love is an emotion to long for something, for someone who was born and raised in a Japanese family in Argentina, Shibuya was a distant place to long for. However, when I first experienced with my own feet and eyes the city itself, of which I had a platonic one-sided ideal image for more than a decade, I remember I had an uncomfortable feeling. Although the city I dreamed of was in front of me, something was wrong. I had to choose between turning my eyes away to escape from reality or accepting everything and making an effort to turn immature love into real affection. Through photography, I decided to face and accept Tokyo including Shibuya as it is.
When I first started serious photography, I thought of an idea that would guide me when I was lost, which was "Photography is about reality, and reality is in the streets." The idea is still in me and street photography is my lifetime work as an artist. Street photography in Tokyo, for me, is one means to match answers, where I compare the ideal images I envisioned in the past with the reality. Also, I'm a careful person and unable to move forward without something to lean on at all times. I am convinced that my photographic perspectives and the records of the present reality will surely be the basis of my future creation.
In today's world, where you have a reversible choice between color and black-and-white, there are as many reasons for black-and-white as there are photographers (in other words we are in the process of organizing/actualizing it). In my case, I don't have any profound reason to tell you but, if I were to say, I'm fascinated by the simplicity of black-and-white photography. Black-and-white pencil or charcoal drawings stimulate you and ask you to use your imagination due to their limited amount of (color) information. After all, what speaks to your curiosity is what you easily remember. Finding answers to my own question, "How can I attract the audience with only black-and-white?" is challenging and that is why I love black-and-white photography. The freer the interpretation is, the more lives the work itself will lead, which is good for your aft.
People say, "When you concentrate on something, you lose sight of what surrounds it" (I actually do), but it's often the case that important subjects are outside your consciousness. It is especially true with street snaps taken with a 28mm lens, which I always enjoy. There is a stage around the subject matter you focus on and capture. It can be a cityscape or a group of people, and even if you don't notice them at the time of shooting, all things in the picture are important to make the most of the main character. I love to shoot portraits with 28mm too, by the way. In portraiture too, it is important for me to make both the main character and the stage coexist in the work.
Snapshooting with 28mm is entertaining for both audience and photographer.
Tomas H. Hara
Born in Buenos Aires in 1987, Tomas H. Hara is an Argentinian street photographer based in Tokyo. Tomas’ passion to photography was inherited at early age from his father. After graduating from university in Buenos Aires, Tomas moved Tokyo where he pursues his street photography focused on people of Shibuya, Shinjuku, and other urban cities.
www.tomashhara.com
