Here’s one way to cool down a little during the Tokyo summer . . .

Back in 2008 I took part in a press tour to the Shiretoko peninsula way up on the northeast tip of Hokkaido. It was a fantastic trip, including a visit out to the ice-flows on an ice-breaker.

Sadly, global warming is threatening Shiretoko’s tourist industry as each year the ice flow shrinks.

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)

Sento bathhouse painter Toshimitsu Hayakawa was one of the most remarkable people I’ve photographed. Sadly, he passed away in 2009, only a couple of years after I took these photographs.

One of the two last sento bathhouse painters in Tokyo, he was in his seventies and still working.

He was a modest and kind man who lived a tough life, but did he job with care and dignity. He had a lot to teach.

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)

Some photos from a little while ago that I’ve finally got round to posting (that happens a lot!)

This is the owner of Marutou wasabi farm. If you are ever near the tip of the Izu peninsula, pay him a visit. He lives in one of the most beautiful Japanese villages I’ve ever seen.

(Tokyo photojournalist on Facebook)

Earlier this year I was interviewed by an organisation called The Shpilman Institute for Photography. To be quite honest, I don’t know much about them, but the questions were fun and I seem to be among in good company amongst the other interviewees on the blog. I’m re-posting the interview here with permission.

Just in case anyone wanted to know a little more about me and why I spend time on this job, hobby and obsession that is photography.

Tony

What was the first image you ever took?

About the age of seven or eight I was given a little plastic camera that took 110 film. I can’t remember the first photo I took, but it was probably of my younger brother. He got a camera too.

I can tell you of the first photos I sold – they were taken while walking a 750-mile  Buddhist pilgrimage on the Japanese island of Shikoku.

A Flood Prevention Civil Engineering Project, Tokyo

Why did you want to become a photographer?

I consider myself a photojournalist more than a photographer, and I started off as a reporter.

The fantastic thing about taking photos as well as writing, though, is that you actually have to log off and leave the office, visit places and meet people. That’s almost a luxury for many journalists these days.

I don’t have any pretensions towards being an artist. I just want to go and see more and more, and to share what I see.

Sumo Training Session

What is the most difficult thing for a photographer in this day and age? What do you hate the most?

For photojournalists – making a living. I am lucky that I have a job editing a magazine and the opportunity to take photos for it too.

I hate the fact that very very few photojournalists can find publications offering the remuneration they need to really pursue a story.

I hate sterile arguments about equipment. Nikon or Canon? It’s like arguing over whether you should type your novel in Arial or Times New Roman.

Producing the Largest Firework in the World

What inspires you?

Unashamed nosiness. Being a photojournalist is the perfect excuse to go anywhere and meet anyone. I’ve photographed arctic ice flows, Kobe beef cows and phallic festivals. I’ve met bath-house mural painters, wasabi farmers and rookie sumo wrestlers.

I think every story I have ever written or photographed has added something to my life. Life not as a photojournalist for me would be sad and drab.

What kind of music do you listen to when you work on your computer?

I don’t listen to music while I’m using the computer; if I am concentrating on more than one thing at a time, I’m not concentrating. But my iPod is a lifesaver on the Japanese commuter trains.

My station is on the busiest line in Tokyo If I didn’t tune out I’d go insane within a couple of stops.

There’s so much music. How about Nega (Photograph Blues) by Gilberto Gill?

Taking Video of the Cherry Blossom, Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan, April 3, 2010

What was the last photography book you’ve read?

I just re-read Eikoh Hosoe: Aperture Masters of Photography.

A year ago I was privileged to organize an exhibition of Hosoe’s photos at the Japan Foreign Correspondent’s Club and the book was a gift.

Who are your photography idols?

Eikoh Hosoe again. I am in awe of the passion and energy of his work. We showed some of his photographs of the Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima, who committed seppuku ritual-suicide in 1970.

Hosoe captured Mishima’s sinister theatricality perfectly. The photos are technically superb and still disturbing to look at, decades later.

What can we find on your bookmarks?

I am a fan of the Burn blog and Japan Exposures. Other than that I monitor a huge range of blogs and news sites on Japan in English and Japanese.

I’m always on the lookout for weird and photogenic stories relatively unreported by English-language media. There are plenty.

Tokyo Commuters

What are you working on now?

Japanese food and drink. I’ve traveled all over Japan photographing farmers and food producers. They face a desperate future as the Japanese countryside is badly depopulated and the average age of farmers is something like 65. But they produce ingredients for the finest cuisine in the world with awesome dedication.

I’m still just nibbling at the edges of Japanese food culture. It would take many lifetimes to understand and enjoy it all.

Sharpening a tuna knife at Tsukiji

Beautiful day, gorgeous light, happy people – what more do you need?

A few portraits from our local spring festival last weekend. It’s not the first time I have shot the festival, though I took a different approach this time.

D700 + 50mm lens. All were taken close to maximum aperture, usually within a few seconds of asking if the subject minded being photographed. I reduced saturation and added some film grain in Adobe Lightroom.

(Another of our local festivals. It’s held every two years, so perhaps I’ll shoot it again this Autumn?)

Ukimafunado Festival 2008 from Tony McNicol on Vimeo.

Not Japan and not photojournalism per se, but I’ve been meaning to post these here for a while. The summer before last I visited Poland with my family and trusty GR1.

We were visiting my Polish relatives, but it was my first time to Poland since school. I was quite shocked at how little I really knew about the country. So please treat these as a first impression. The photos were taken mostly in Warsaw and Krakow.

Anyway, my Poland via a GR1 and few rolls of B&W . . .

This story was on the way back from Niigata early spring this year. Karl Bengs is a German architect who first visited Japan in 1966. He buys old Japanese farmhouses, dismantles them then rebuilds them in his own distinctive style and with all mod cons (like proper insulation and heating).

This photo was taken in his office. The Buddhist statue in the background was bought in a Tokyo antiques shop 20 years ago. I want one of those for my office too!

Karl Bengs

Bengs lives in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited in Japan (Tokamachi). Even in early spring when the snow was uncovering the dead grass it looked enchanting.  This is one of Bengs’ 40 or so houses. Most are in the village where he lives. I have to go back there in the winter or when the rice is green.

The houses are a similar-ish price to brand new modern houses, Bengs told me, and the land up in the mountains is almost free.

A house by Karl Bengs

Inside the thatched roof.

Another picture in the office. Nice moody warm lighting. I think I used the flash on camera with a tungsten filter.

Bengs is 187cm tall so he brought the farmhouse floor down 10cm when he rebuilt it.

My Rough Guide to Japan tells me that the Joetsu Shinkansen from Tokyo to Niigata was the most expensive train track in the world to build. It cost some 6 billion yen per kilometer and about one third of the journey is through tunnels.

Built by LDP pork-barrel legend Tanaka Kakuei, the bullet train line runs through the 1972-1974 PM’s Niigata heartlands. To me it’s a symbol of all Japan hopes to leave behind with the recent election. I was up there earlier this year and took this picture of the late Tanaka’s statue outside Urasa station. The Economist calls him “an astonishingly corrupt politician”.

Tanaka’s railway was less a way to transport Tokyoites to Niigata than a way to funnel government money back to his constituents. He built hulking Shinkansen stations in sleepy rice farming villages which would probably be lucky to see one local train an hour.

The waiting room at Urasa wasn’t exactly packed:

Nor the platform.

Not much work for taxi drivers outside the station.

Some traffic at last!

Have we seen the back of Tanaka style politics? I’m not holding my breath. The first thing I saw on the TV the morning after the election was a beaming Tanaka Makiko, Kakuei’s daughter. She’s now a DPJ politician.

Up in Niigata I heard a rumour that she was responsible for the canopy over Tanaka’s statue.

Not taking stock photos this time . . I thought I’d dust off and share my unspectacular but well loved  film camera collection. Here’s the first of 11.

Nikon FM2

A sad side-effect of the huge convenience of digital is that film cameras have become a bit too much of an effort these days, for me at least. Even though only quite recently I was taking at least a roll a week. I must have a couple of hundred sheets of negatives on my shelves here. Using film was a nice way to separate home photography from (digital) work.

These days I’m putting all my effort into digital: all those cameras menus, editing, archiving, setting up new blogs and sites (watch this space). So much to learn. That’s my excuse for why, to my shame, most of my film cameras are gathering dust.

It’s a pity. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, manual film cameras really do TAKE photos. I don’t know how new photographer’s learn what shutter speeds and f-stops really are with chips and circuits doing everything for them. Put a few rolls through a Nikon FM2 and you’ll learn to hear the difference between 1/30 and 1/8 – maybe learn to feel it. And there’s nothing to beat the excitement of collecting your film from the developers.

Perhaps I’ll come full circle and return to film again one day? But in the meantime here is an inventory of my collection.  Some are from generous relatives, some from ebay and a few rescued from the junk camera bins at various camera shops.

They all work.  And actually, they are all great cameras. I think the cheapest was about 1000 yen and the most expensive 40,000 yen. The first one I bought was the FM2: a bargain because it was so beat up. The last was the Yashica Samurai. It cost 1000 yen, which is about the same price its battery. (A battery was included. Bargain!)

If anyone owns one of the same models or wants to share  links to photos taken with them, feel free to commnet below. Maybe I’ll post some film photos too. Another part of taking stock is that I’m going through my rather muddled archive now.

[None of the cameras are for sale, I'm afraid]

Pentax Spotmatic 55mm f1.8

Voightlander Vito B 50mm f2.8

Olympus-Pen EE-2 28mm f3.5

Ricoh GR1 28mm f2.8

Yashica Mat-124G 80mm f3.5

Yashica-Mat EM 80mm f3.5

Yashica Samurai X3.0 25mm-75mm f3.5-4.3

Yashica Electro 35 GL 40mm f1.7

Yashica Electro 35 GSN 40mm f1.7

Yashica Electro 35 GT 40mm f1.7

A new word: phojo.

Seem to have lost my phojo (photo-mojo) these last few weeks. Perhaps it is the summer heat? Perhaps it is the drip drip drip of desperate news on this industry? But I am shooting less than usual and severely lacking inspiration. I’m even leaving my GR1 at home at the weekends.

Anyway, have you ever lost your phojo? How did you get it back?