Exhibition/event has ended.
Jim O'Connell Exhibition
Shinjuku Golden Gai
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Artists
Jim O'Connell
For the past year and a half, American photographer Jim O'Connell has been walking the nighttime streets of Kabukicho, Tokyo's most notorious entertainment district, camera in hand, taking his moody, black and white pictures.
"I'm less concerned with what the place looks like than trying to show how the place feels," he explains. "Twenty five years ago, New York's Times Square and 42nd street felt like this - the gangsters, the pimps, the doormen, the massage parlor girls, the drunks, the grime, the peep shows, the feeling that sex or danger lurks around any corner. That's all gone now, redeveloped, sanitized. The place's charm lives only now in memory, in legend, in a culture gone forever. One day, Kabukicho will be gone, too. This is my attempt to capture it while it is still here."
"Kabukicho is not a place that you can photograph well from outside. To see the place, to know the place, to understand the place, to shoot the place well, you need to become a part of it. These photos have become a kind of self-portrait, showing both the hidden side of Tokyo, as well as a glimpse into my own hidden side."
Jim O'Connell has lived and worked in Tokyo since 1999.
This event is taking place in Nagune, a bar in Golden Gai.
"I'm less concerned with what the place looks like than trying to show how the place feels," he explains. "Twenty five years ago, New York's Times Square and 42nd street felt like this - the gangsters, the pimps, the doormen, the massage parlor girls, the drunks, the grime, the peep shows, the feeling that sex or danger lurks around any corner. That's all gone now, redeveloped, sanitized. The place's charm lives only now in memory, in legend, in a culture gone forever. One day, Kabukicho will be gone, too. This is my attempt to capture it while it is still here."
"Kabukicho is not a place that you can photograph well from outside. To see the place, to know the place, to understand the place, to shoot the place well, you need to become a part of it. These photos have become a kind of self-portrait, showing both the hidden side of Tokyo, as well as a glimpse into my own hidden side."
Jim O'Connell has lived and worked in Tokyo since 1999.
This event is taking place in Nagune, a bar in Golden Gai.
Schedule | Jul 2 (Mon) 2007-Jul 14 (Sat) 2007 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | ¥1000 (bar cover charge) | ||
| Website | http://www.nagune.jp/exhibition.html | ||
| Venue | Shinjuku Golden Gai | ||
| Location | 1-1 Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0021 | ||
| Access | 8 minute walk from the East exit of JR Shinjuku Station, 3 minute walk from exit B13 at Shinjuku-sanchome Station on the Marunouchi line. | ||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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