Group 1 'Umekonbu' Goes to Pentax Forum Gallery and 'NY Manhattan'

We went to a gallery called Pentax Forum in Shinjuku, located inside the Shinjuku Center Building. It takes about 10 minutes, walking from the West Exit of Shinjuku Station. On the B1 floor of the Center Building, there is Pentax Square. When you go in there, you can see the first gallery on the left side, and a show room on the other side, which exhibits the different kinds of cameras from Pentax (and you can try them there!) If you walk farther in the first gallery, you can enter the second gallery, which had other photographer’s pictures at the time we went. By the way, a photographer we’re going to introduce you uses a camera by Pentax.

 The show's title is “NY Manhattan no Aruji Tachi” (NYマンハッタンの主たち), meaning “People from Manhattan, NY”. The photographer’s name is Tadashi Osaka. He was at the gallery, so we got to talk to him for a little. He is 66 years old, and he started taking pictures in club activities when he was in middle school. He used to live in England for a long time when he was young, and at the time he was working as a translator. He decided to take pictures again when he was sixty. He told us that he decided to take pictures of people in Manhattan because he was just so curious about them, and since he knew so much about Europe but had no idea about America, he decided to go to New York. His first time trip there was in 2006, with his wife, and took pictures on the second trip when they went last year.

There were his comments posted at the gallery, and he wrote, “When I say ‘Hello’ to them, they always give back the mild smile” and “a man gives a hearty welcome to me and I develop delusions that I am also one of the leading characters on the stage called Manhattan, NY.” He also told us that he felt the age, race, and degree don’t really matter in America and how America has its own freedom.

Mr. Osaka’s photographs were printed in black and white, about A3 size. According to his blog “Tadashi Osaka’s Photography”, to adjust the tone of his photographs, he printed out the photographs by himself. At the gallery, we could see the photographs lined up on the wall by the scenes of the street, subway, museum, hotel, department store and to café. The photographer might have placed them in this order to make the visitors at his exhibition feel like they’re actually walking through Manhattan.Of course the people in photographs symbolize the big city, New York. But also the tall buildings around them, spray paintings and other kinds of drawings on the walls, fashion styles and looks of the people, and just everything in the photographs says “NEW YORK”!

 I’ve never been to New York, but at the exhibition I could imagine myself walking on a street there. I thought this is the nice way to see how the city I’ve never been to is like, other than reading through catalogs and checking websites. Looking at the real people and their natural smiles, movements, and styles was fun and made me want to visit New York. I actually want to see Mr. Osaka’s other photographs so I hope I can check them out if I get a chance. I would love to go to his exhibition again!

 Please look at this photo. This is a photo of a crossing. In the front, many people are walking across the road. There are various people there such as office worker, a woman with baby carriage, people walking alone and with group, however they are same in the point that they are walking their own way. In the back, tall building are standing. We can assume that there are also many people in those building. Then, the sun shining back of these building seems to be symbolizing their energetic lives.

 Other than this photograph, there are so many attractive photos. These photos as a whole indicate that various people engage in individual lives.

 When we started looking at the pictures, we felt like we were actually in NY city. Even though all the pictures were black and white, they looked all real and fresh. None of us has never been there before, but through pictures, we thought we found out what it is like to be in that huge city. What we thought was that anyone could be a star in NY. We assume it has some kind of an air that makes you realize you are a star in your own life story. We saw some people in pictures and they were bright and energetic. And we strongly thought they looked very strong inside which was understandable. You would have to be independent and know what you want and need in NY because It's where you can be ambitious and purchase your dreams and that's why it has attracted people a long time.

The pictures also made us realize that any moments or scenes of your life are beautiful and could be amazing art. The pictures were simple and casual but very fascinating and we simply liked them. Lastly, if you asked if we wanted to go visit his work at a gallery again, we definitely would say "YES".