Matsufusa｜Shigeo Gocho "In the City I Am Used To"
The exhibition "In the City I Am Used To" by Shigeo Gocho, held at PURPLE in Kyoto, featured all 47 prints from his 1981 photobook of the same name.Summary
The exhibition "In the City I Am Used To" by Shigeo Gocho was held at PURPLE in Kyoto, showcasing all 47 prints from his self-published photobook from 1981. Shigeo Gocho is a unique figure in Japanese photography, often associated with Compora photography, who passed away young. This series is somewhat atypical compared to his usual tranquil black-and-white work, as it captures bustling urban areas in color between 1978 and 1980. Gocho utilized advertising positive film, resulting in vivid, high-contrast images of the city's 'advertised landscape,' reflecting the consumer society of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The article suggests this approach can be seen as a conceptual practice responding to landscape theory, yet ultimately, the photographs reveal Gocho's characteristic distance from his subjects. Gocho viewed photography as a method of confrontation between the photographer and the world, finding depth and 'shadows' in the everyday, akin to psychotherapy. Furthermore, he explored different presentations of the work across the photobook, magazine essays, and exhibitions, indicating an ongoing search for how to display his vision. Positioned as a counterpart to his earlier work, 'SELF AND OTHERS,' this series focuses on the 'other' as a fleeting crowd, contrasting with the more direct engagement in the previous book, illustrating Gocho's continuous exploration of how to construct his world through the camera.
(Source：artscape)