Haruto Hoshi at Third District Gallery by 'Tama' Group 7

A few seconds walk from the C5 exit of the Shinjuku Sanchome station brings you to the Third District Gallery. However, perhaps you will not be able to find it easily. This is because Third District Gallery is in the small office block. When we looked for the gallery, we could not expect that the photo gallery is in such a tiny and high building. You climb the stairs and the gallery is on the fourth floor. On the way up stairs, there is shady lingerie shop and a pub. ("First thing I had felt was scary or ominous. Stair and building was narrow and dark. But simultaneously, I had another feeling. It seemed dark and scary but it made feel curious and feel want to search what is in there" -said another group member!) 
 As soon as we step into the gallery on the fourth floor, we are lapped in light. White is the prevailing color in the gallery, the lights are bright. The gallery’s entrance is confined, but extends gradually, and the gallery is about 6 meters long. The gallery is comparatively small, but it did not feel small. This is because there are little things and what is in there are very simple in this gallery. The gallery has 28 photographs. Photographs are exhibited every direction. Each photographs is lighted, and in the metal frames. There are one table and two chairs in the middle of the gallery. The back of the gallery has the office, sometimes making use of the darkroom. The photographers develop pictures there. 

Five Japanese photographers run the Third District Gallery. The predecessor of this gallery was called Gallery Q, and it began in 1996. The name of Third District Gallery is come from the place name, Shinjuku sanchoume. Hoshi Haruto, the one of the five photographers in this gallery, is said that he does not like this name, because this name is too easy.  The five owners of this gallery judge severely the photographs of the applicants who would like to exhibit his or her work. This is because Hoshi Haruto, the organizer of St. photo exhibition 9, said that the photo gallery is the only valuable place at which the photographers can learn and make their photographs public. The day we went to this gallery, we met a men and women who study photographs in a university. They said it is difficult for them to live on the photographs as work, so the gallery is important place to study photographs after graduating from school.

Another group member writes:

I'm going to tell you about the photographer, Hoshi Haruto . When we went to the gallery, he was there and talked a lot with us. He was very frank, so he told about himself openly.

 Mr. Hoshi graduated from middle school, and began to work without visiting school. He became a carpenter's mate. He said he had dreamed living in craftsmen’s society. However, in his latter twenties, he became involved in the underside of the society. His best and old friend for example was a ''yakuza'' member, and Hoshi himself sold drugs to make ends meet. The friend told him to be with him and Hoshi followed. He lived as a follower of the friend for some years. To the outside, he acted vigorously, but on the inside, he was weak and disintegrated. One day, he realized that he can't lead such a life as long as his lifetime. But he can't also betray his best friend. He suffered deeply. Meanwhile, he was caught by the police and put in prison. Having a lot of time there, he made a movie scenario first. He thought it was difficult, but the experience motivated him to create something which he can exhibit to people. He thought the photograph was better and he was interested in it. After getting out of prison, he studied the photography in a night school. Till now, he had solo exhibitions three times and published Luminance of Streets in 2007. His photographic objects are mainly the people who are slightly unusual or strange, in terms of not only their looking but also their occupations. This is because such people are disappearing as time goes on. Hoshi wants to record their atmosphere by taking pictures.

 He says, of course he is vary happy when people praise his works, but the most important purpose of thinking pictures is to recognize himself as he is at the moment when he pushes the shutter. Every time he see his each work, he can remember what he was thinking when he pushed the shutter. He says ''Thanks for this process, I began to be able to live for the moment.''  I appreciate his cooperation of telling half his life very honestly. He was kind enough to make us want to know him more. 

 Another member: 

The image at the top of the page is also the cover picture of his book entitled “Luminance of Streets” (「街の火」in Japanese) that includes photos that were approximately taken from 1999 to 2006. Without any background information and just by looking at the image, it is nearly impossible to spot the relationship between the photographer and the woman and the boy respectively. Fortunately, Hoshi told us in the interview that the beautiful woman on the right side is his sister, and that the boy on the left is her son.

I think they are sitting in a taxi, firstly because of the typical white back seat cover that you can find in almost all Japanese taxis, secondly because of the two headrests. I also think that the upper left area is the rear window of a car.

The image as a whole is well balanced, and the subjects (woman & boy) can be divided into two vertical parts. This bisects the viewer's attention and makes the picture even more interesting. Besides, it was shot from the eye level. Because most of us normally view the world from eye level, photos taken at such an angle have a familiar effect and convey a lot of realism. The knitting pattern of the back seat cover blends well with the pattern of the woman’s high-contrast dress. Aside from that, the plain faces form a nice contrast with the other elements. As for the lighting, it is neither high key nor low key, and therefore nothing special. Hoshi told us that he usually does not pay much attention to lighting. It is also worth mentioning that the picture has only one main layer in the foreground. There is no clearly recognizable background layer, because the whole backseat is acting as a non-transparent frame. Eventually, after getting an overview of the picture, the final resting point of the viewer’s eye is the lower right corner. Noteworthy is the fact that the woman is playing with her wedding band. From a psychological point of view, fiddling with the wedding band usually indicates marital problems, so chances are quite high that she is suffering some sort of inner disunity. As mentioned earlier, during his youth, Hoshi himself sold drugs to make ends meet. To the outside, he acted vigorously, but on the inside, he was weak and disintegrated. Every time when his inner void and his desperation became too huge, he went out to visit the busy streets of 歌舞伎町 or other nightlife districts to temporarily escape his anguish of despair. And on some day, he simply started to take pictures of random individuals.

I could be completely wrong, but my personal opinion is, that in his earlier years, the main impetus was to find and to take pictures of “lost people” who are looking for relief or salvation, just like him. Or in other words, finding affirmation and hope in the hopelessness of other people. Every single one of Hoshi’s earlier photographs is a piece of a puzzle, and by putting them all together, the viewer can recreate the image of Hoshi’s ideal town, which, in turn, is an allegory for his inner world. The “aura” of the town is raw, dangerous, sometimes sexy and sometimes very irritating. Connoisseurs might even find some similarities to the works of Daido Moriyama.
All  his images for the book were taken with a Nikon FM2 camera.  When we visited the Third District Gallery a few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to interview Hoshi Haruto, the man behind the ‘St. Photo Exhibition’ series. He was very frank and he patiently listened to our admittedly amateurish questions. While leafing through his book, which was by the way published in 2007, we realized that unlike his current photographs, all of his previous photos were in black and white. We asked him what has caused the sudden and somewhat radical change in style and the answer was, that he just wanted to bring down the curtain on the past. 

Finally, this group member's opinion of the works:
I looked at a photo. There are people in the photo but seem not the kind of people I usually interact or see. Eyes tell me something. They are lethargic, indifferent, or angry.

This is a photograph of Hoshi Haruto: Five young kids are in the street, four of them are sitting on the rock, one of them is standing beside them and in his hand, he has a cigarette. A girl who sits far right is doing something with a cell phone, the guy who sits next to her looking at somewhere, and both of them don’t look at the camera lens. As for the other two guys who sit on the rock, we can see their face. Left side guy pouts his mouth and right side guy shows his teeth, and his eyes looking at left side. They still pretend to be strong and wild, but they actually feel some kind of nervousness. None of them are looking at the lens but they are aware of the camera. Haruto also takes photos of the homeless, people who walks around the bar, prostitutes, and young people. He has a photograph of five young girls on the street. These girls don’t even care about the camera as they don’t care about the world. He often uses people who are in the situation that they can’t connect well with society which we try to ignore or pretend  not to see. Haruto directs a spotlight on to them and make us to notice.