Hiroshi Watanabe
This post was almost labelled: “So easy a monkey could do it”, not as a comment on photography, but as something for you to use next time someone whose photograph you are taking says they are not a good subject…
© Hiroshi Watanabe
© Hiroshi Watanabe
I found Hiroshi Watanabe’s website from the promotion of an exhibition of his work that was on PDN Photo of the Day, and I must say I absolute love the work he is producing. His Suo Sarumawashi series is particularly interesting, the connection that the viewer has with the Macaque monkeys is nothing short of astounding. The aesthetic that Hiroshi has is very quiet and studied but with a real underlying strength, and while his influence is undoubtedly there in the image, it melts away and leaves the subject there as the dominant force. He has mastered the art of sculpting the photograph and leaving you with just the subject to contemplate, which is a hard thing to accomplish! This has the added advantage that you see past the unusual nature of the subject, forgetting that you are looking at a monkey in a Nike shirt, but instead you are staring at one of the most intimate and telling portraits that you’ve seen in a while.
Another thing the portraits manage is to make you question the idea of performance and expression. The very human and expressive faces of the monkeys make you question what you see from human sitters. Are we seeing the real person or a trained persona, is it real or is an act?
This aesthetic extends into his other work, the Kabuki Players series also carries that through, and in his American Studies the very ordered and studied eye also shows through. To me I can see a very cultural eye in his work, one born from the country of his birth. It has a quiet, studied, contemplative air yet one that is looking for an order and respect in the scene, be it a vista or intimate portrait.
The Suo Sarumawashi series carries on this cultural air, and to me, I see images that are very reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa movies, some of these down to the clothes of the Macaques, but mostly to the emotion and expression of the monkeys themselves.
Check out Hiroshi Watanabe’s online portfolio, it is one that’s worth a long browse.
OMG, these portraits are amazing, it’s hard enough to photograph kids, I can’t imagine how hard it would be to get photographs like this. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Love the facial expressions!
The heads and the clothes look disjointed – almost like photoshop disasters.
I think I would have preferred ‘head only portraits’.
*blocks bottom half of screen with hands* ………. much better
Great expressions – or am I anthropomorphisising a tad ?