Designed and published in France © 2018 inSomnia Photography Magazine and inSomnia photo collective inSomniacollective.org Cover photo by Simon Rüeger Design by Sasha Yermilova Text by Nathanaël Coetzee & Sasha Yermilova All images and text published in this book by the inSomnia collective are copyright protected and the sole property and ownership of the photographers and editors. This publication may not be copied, printed, manipulated, edited, distributed or used in any form without written consent by the copyright owners and publisher. All rights reserved.
www.inSomniacollective.org
inSomnia
Photography Magazine
#6
Here is the volume #6 of insomnia, we hope you enjoy it.
Collective portfolios p.5
Interview Natela Grigalashvili p.56 Tadashi Onishi p.64
Featured Laurent Renaux p.74 Hean Kuan Ong p.80 Vincent Ferriere p.86 Yoshitaka Kashima p.92
Group Select
Miyuki Kurosaki
Edyta Korupczynska
Simon RĂźeger
Miyuki Kurosaki
Edyta Korupczynska
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Sasha Yermilova
Sasha Yermilova
Edyta Korupczynska
Miyuki Kurosaki
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Sasha Yermilova
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Miyuki Kurosaki
Edyta Korupczynska
Simon RĂźeger
Miyuki Kurosaki
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Sasha Yermilova
Simon RĂźeger
Miyuki Kurosaki
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Miyuki Kurosaki
Sasha Yermilova
Miyuki Kurosaki
Simon RĂźeger
Edyta Korupczynska
Simon RĂźeger
Simon RĂźeger
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Miyuki Kurosaki
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Edyta Korupczynska
Sasha Yermilova
Sasha Yermilova
Simon RĂźeger
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Sasha Yermilova
Simon RĂźeger
Sasha Yermilova
Miyuki Kurosaki
Aleksandra Chajkowska
Miyuki Kurosaki
Sasha Yermilova
Edyta Korupczynska
Edyta Korupczynska
Simon RĂźeger
Simon RĂźeger
Miyuki Kurosaki
Edyta Korupczynska
Interview
by Simon Rüeger
Natela Grigalashvili
Instagram natela_grigalashvili Site www.natelagrigalashvili.com
Could you introduce yourself and tell us how did you start photography? My name is Natela Grigalashvili, I am a freelance documentary photographer, living in Georgia, Tbilisi. I work on different topics, mostly in rural areas of Georgia. I started photography when I was around 20. In the beginning I wanted to become a documentary movie operator, because of this I had to learn photography independently. After, I went to study in a photography studio for a year. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to study the profession I wanted in the beginning, so I continued photography. After finishing my studies I started working as a reporter. I worked with many of Georgian magazines and newspapers. Nowadays I’m happy that I decided to follow the photography path.
"I just photograph what I see and feel. The places, people and events that are close to my heart."
Looking at your color pictures they have a very specific look, is there any particular reason and could you explain? Actually I’ve never thought that my photos have a specific look. Maybe it is like that, but I really can’t explain the reason. I just photograph what I see and feel. The places, people and events that are close to my heart.
Most of your pictures are done in rural areas, why? And do you go to big cities? I was born and raised in a small mountainous village which I left when I was 16. I moved to the capital to study and since then I’ve been living in the city. Most of the happiest moments of my life are from the period when I was living in the village. The majority of my projects are done in villages of Georgia. The environment, people, their lifestyle, interests, problems, happiness and sorrows are very familiar to me. I am interested in their daily life, their every day struggle. Maybe I love being in these places because I have the feeling that being close to the nature makes these people more humble and real. I always say that I want to start a photo project in the city but for some reasons I always postpone it.
Are you photographing digital or analogue? And do you prefer working more in color or BW? At the beginning when I started photography I could only afford black and white film ﴾late 80’s, 90’s﴿, so I was photographing only in black and white. Later when digital cameras became cheaper I started to take color shots as well. Nowadays I work with both color and b&w. I am from a generation where we were using film cameras, but these days I mostly use digital cameras, because film became very expensive.
Are you able to live from your photography? Yes, the only source of my income is photography. I teach photography at several universities and work on different assignments.
Comparing your work with other photographers, how would you define your own? I don’t like comparing my works to others. Not because they are something great, but because they are very personal for me. I am fascinated by good photography and I believe everyone has their own path if they are true to what they are doing.
What is it you are trying to tell us through your photography? I want to tell the stories of people and places that are emotionally close to me. Lot of times these people are forgotten and their problems are unnoticed.
Do you first have an idea and then implement it, or does the idea spontaneously come to your mind when you are standing at the place of the event and observe a situation? First I have the idea. After this I study the topic I want to develop as a photo project for a long time. But I get the ideas spontaneously when I am in certain places or with certain people, observing the environment.
Interview
by Nathanael Coetzee
Tadashi Onishi
Website www.tadashionishi.com
How did you get into photography? I started to shoot the street 4 years ago. Of course I had taken photographs of my family, friends, and at special events for a long time but it was just for recording memories and with no passion. In 2013, while browsing the internet, I found some great street photographs and it peaked my interest immediately. However, my first attempts did not resemble the pictures I was interested in. This motivated me to dig deeper and I have been hooked ever since.
"Photography is a wat of expressing my mind."
You are a member of Void tokyo, can you tell us about the experience of being part of a collective? Basically we are together to publish the street photography zine. Mainly we talk about the editing not our photographs. However I think that we have been motivated/inspired by the other member’s photographs/ actions. I’ve learned a lot of things with “VoidTokyo”.
In 2017 you made a book named “Lost in Shinjuku” could you explain how this book came to be? This book is an award book of the “Trieste Photo Days Book Award 2017” ran by the Italian cultural association dotART. I submitted them this series. The series comes from a part of my daily life, done during my journey to work.
I see a lot of your work is made in BW, do you happen to make color and why the choice of BW? That’s simple for me. Color is real. B&W is like a panorama ﴾mental scenery﴿. Photography is a way of expressing my mind. That’s why I choose B&W for my works. However, for recording such as family photos or documentary photos, I use color.
What makes Tokyo such an interesting place to take pictures? As the other big city has, Tokyo also has a lot of mixed culture brought by the provincial and foreign people, and of course Japanese culture. The chaotic mood makes more complicated life for the people here. That is interesting to shoot.
Was it the first book you ever printed, how was the experience? I enjoyed it. But I like to make my first “directed” book in the future. I want to direct everything for my first book.
You do a lot of pictures in Tokyo, do you happen to travel elsewhere and conduct projects over there? Yes, sometimes I travel to Atami, the hot spring place 2 hours from Tokyo. And I have shot there for 9 years. I will organize photos from there to a single project.
Are there any new projects you are working on at the moment, could you tell us about them ? I’ve been thinking about “a new” photographic project. But sorry, nothing to tell so far... I just started the “ROZOU project”, that is a Street photography exhibition on the street of Tokyo. To share the images of street photography with people on the street, especially who are not so interested in 'Photography', but who could be a photogenic subject mostly in 'Street photography'. It creates closeness between the photographer and the viewer. Hopefully this project can change the view on street photography that most people misunderstand, and the image rights we have in Japan.
What influences your work? As for the photographers, Shoji Ueda is my favorite. I think that music ﴾mostly down tempo/tiphop﴿, novels Hoshi’s SciFi and modern arts have influenced my photography.
If you had one advice to give to the people reading, what would it be? Just click as much as you feel. That is exactly what I do.
Featured Photographers
Laurent Renaux
Most of your work seem to take place in Asia, any reason why? I have a special connection with Asia. I lived two full years in Japan. For nine years I went there three to four times a year for vacations. These years of expatriation have naturally pushed me to discover little by little other Asian countries. My passion for street photography was born at the same time. I particularly like the strong cultural differences between each Asian country. These differences are, in my opinion, more impressive in Asia than between European countries. This year I will return to China, in June probably, to the city of Harbin. In November I will go to Bangladesh for a month. I also think of going elsewhere in September but I have not chosen my destination yet.
How does your day of taking photography look like? I never have a specific plan. I leave my accommodation midmorning and I return at nightfall. I walk alone in the city without knowing where I go. To lose myself is very frequent during my photo walks. Then I ask people or I use the GPS of my smartphone to find my way back. Tourist places don't attract me at all. Popular neighborhoods are for me the places I prefer. I like to take the time to hang out and observe. I never put pressure on myself because for me it's just and simply a great pleasure. I shoot images when I discover situations that I like or when I meet people with whom I get a good connection.
Do you prefer color or BW? I don't have any particular preferences. My choice between black and white and color depends on my state of mind. The light of the moment and place can have their importance too. If there are color connections I will choose more often color. If the place where I am has a timeless side, the black and white will naturally prevails. But this is not a systematic rule it generally depends on my mood.
Do you do any other photography than street or do you consider yourself just a street photographer? Today I consider myself a street photographer. The street is where I feel most comfortable with my camera. I like the unpredictable side of the street. I am always curious to know what will happen after the next street corner. Recently I started shooting with models.This is another face of photography that I am discovering step by step. Of course I have already captured landscapes, macro, minimalistic and abstract, but above all here in Lyon or elsewhere in the world the street always calls me.
Hean Kuan Ong
What got you into photography? In fact, it is the "speed" that gets me into photography. I love paintings, it's a slow process, but in contrast, taking photographs is super fast. After I started taking photographs, somehow it got me addicted to taking more.
Most of your work is in BW, why and do you ever take any color shots? I do both. However, I publish most in Black and White. With a limited range of colors, black and white and a lot of greys, photographs seem to be more emotional, which I love to express this way.
Do you mostly shoot while traveling or in your own city? I only travel once or twice a year. I enjoy taking photographs during my travels, however, during the ordinary weekends, I love taking photographs of my home town too. Sometimes I also do feel like I am traveling while taking pictures of my home town.
Which photographers have influenced you and why? Few of them. Henri Cartier Bresson is the first who inspired me. I learned about the "decisive moment" from him. Daido Moriyama is the one who encouraged me to keep shooting, any days, any nights, any directions and any angles, to shoot all of them. Sebastiao Salgado's works inspired me to keep shooting in black and white when I almost gave up black and white photography. Nobuyoshi Araki gave me a sense of freedom and reality in taking pictures.
Vincent Ferriere
What attracts you in street photography? There is in the street what people choose to take with them, and what they release without even knowing it. So I'm looking for what hides behind all these moving facades, like an explorer of the human drama.
Your work was done in Japan, why this attraction? We can't really talk about attraction. I ended up in Japan by chance, as a result of a failed photographic project. There I found in the streets a reflection of my own melancholy. The sensation of omnipresent immensity reinforced my wandering. Finally, Tokyo and I fitted well together. I had a blank canvas where I could paint my anxieties and my doubts and I placed the city on a pedestal, like a girl who impresses us that we dare to approach.
What about the rendering of your photos, is there a particular style that you seek to obtain? For this work I wanted to isolate emotions from their context, and focus on the echoes which resonnates in each of us. Contrasting black and white like Sluban Klavdij allows to limit the amount of information that could divert the eye and the senses. I always have in the corner of my head the image of Garry Winogrand who, while photographing, dared to be close to his subjects. He never hesitated to infiltrate the "living space", even modifying the scenes that he immortalized, by provoking a stare towards the objective, charged with a point of aggressiveness or misunderstanding.
Do you do color pictures? I can admit that color requires from me, a more important emotional application. In fact, photography allows me, above all, to fix impalpable moments. I suffer a lot from not being able to access these moments as soon as I feel like it, like a perfume that fades from our memory the second it disappears in the wind. Black and white allows me not to deteriorate the complexity of a scene that I already have trouble keeping in mind. I am afraid that color, more factual, will replace my intimate and imperceptible memories with those of another, or with a more universal vision that would touch me less.
Yoshitaka Kashima
When did you start photography? After seeing Shin'ya Fujiwara's album at the library ﴾while being a student at the college﴿, I was going to visit India and bought a Nikon camera.
What is your prefered style of photography and why? I prefer absolutely uncontrolled photography. Occasionally something goes better than what I create. In this sense, I like street photos more than the studio shots staged, that are built from scratch.
Do you exhibit your work or is it just for online purposes? I exhibited my printed photos only once at the group exhibition last year. But one day I hope to do my own exhibition.
Photography is all about seeing, feeling, could you explain us your trigger mechanisms that make you want to take photos? The main essence of the photography is in seeing and feeling.
Tell us, what makes you press the shutter? Some inner sensation seems to tell me to press the button, and I reflectively press the shutter. That is something which comes with experience, I do not know exactly how. If you think about the frame even for 0.5 seconds, the situation already changed.
Group Select
Cristiano Guida
Andrea Comino
Florin Stanca
Andrea Comino
David Lin
Bernhard Konig
Florin Tepardea
Sk Saito
Rene Stuardo
Jannie Liong
Order your print edition at insomniacollective.org
#6
inSomnia
Photography Magazine