ASPHALT
X
Self-Published
Japanese and English
Edited by Akira Hasegawa
Softcover
Edition of 700
48 pages
210 x 260 mm
2012
ISBN 9784904262108
The tenth issue of Japanese photography magazine ASPHALT, edited by Akira Hasegawa. Our guest for this issue, Mr. Gianni Giosue, refers to himself as a “European,” and he does not reveal his age or nationality. He disappeared shortly after the Tohoku earthquake last year, so people around him thought that he had fled in fear, just like many other foreigners. It was quite the opposite; as a matter of fact, he had gone towards Fukushima to take photographs and produce a photographic document of the situation. The photos printed in this issue were taken back in 2009 in Indian Administered Kashmir.
For this issue, Mr. Shin-ichiro Tojimbara did his shoot in Koenji, a residential area of Tokyo. Mr. Tojimbara plays the guitar himself and has also included photographs of his musician friends and the nightlife in town. “Military Bar” by Mr. Atsushi Fujiwara is a part of the “Ode for the Southern Land of Japan” series. Last but not least, this Volume 10 is the final issue of this publication “ASPHALT”.
(Source: http://www.fuji-field.jp/asphalt/profile1.html)
Contributions by Akira Hasegawa, Shin-ichiro Tojimbara, Gianni Giosue, Atsushi Fujiwara, and Aya Okabe
About the Artists
Akira Hasegawa was the editor for the well-known and now very collectible Asahi Sonorama Shashinshu series of 27 books published in the late 1970s. In addition to that series, Hasegawa edited some of the most famous milestones of Japanese photobooks: A Journey to Nakaji and Tono Story by Daido Moriyama, Heisei Gannen by Nobuyoshi Araki, and Solitude of Ravens (カラス) by Masahisa Fukase. His editorial influence can still be felt by a wide crop of current editors and publishers, such as Michitaka Ota of Sokyu-sha, who refers to Hasegawa as his sempai (‘senior’ or ‘superior’). Hasegawa served as editor-in-chief of ASPHALT.
(Source: https://www.japanexposures.com/2010/03/23/the-paths-of-photography-asphalt/)
Shin-ichiro Tojimbara graduated from Tokyo Visual Art College as a student of photographer Daido Moriyama. In April 2008, he co-founded ASPHALT with Atsushi Fujiwara to establish a platform for upcoming photographers in Japan.
(Source: http://atsushifujiwara.com/new1002.html)
Gianni Giosue is an international photographer who describes himself only as “a European” and reveals neither his age nor his nationality. An action-oriented photographer, his work typically depicts sites of warfare, geopolitical tension, and environmental upheaval, from the Kashmir region to post-earthquake Fukushima.
(Source: pg. 3)
Atsushi Fujiwara was born in Shiga, Japan, in 1963. He departed a lucrative business career to open a photo studio, catering to high-end advertising and commercial photography clients. In April 2008, he co-founded ASPHALT with Shin-ichiro Tojimbara.
http://atsushifujiwara.com/
(Source: http://atsushifujiwara.com/new1002.html)
Aya Okabe is a self-taught photographer, born in Tokyo in 1972. She self-publishes “Appare Shimbun”, a personal photo newspaper. She is a member of Gallery KAIDO in Nakano, Tokyo.
(Source: pg. 3, https://kaidobooks.jimdofree.com/gallery-member/aya-okabe/)
About the Magazine
ASPHALT is a photography magazine founded by photographers Atsushi Fujiwara and Shin-ichiro Tojimbara in April 2008. From the 2nd issue, legendary Japanese photo editor Akira Hasegawa joined as editor-in-chief. From its inception, ASPHALT was created with the intention to produce a finite series of only ten issues, stemming from the belief that the concept would eventually be exhausted, and there would be no need to carry it forward indefinitely. As such, the magazine concluded in October 2012, with its tenth volume. The publication sought to emphasize its underlying motivation of providing a reflection on Japanese photography, past and present, and to challenge a great lack of institutional and individual examination into the cultural context within which photographers operate and produce images. Of particular importance was the need to find the connection and evolution path between the previous generation of photographers from the 1960s and ’70s, with the subsequent wave of artists since the mid- and late-1990s.
http://atsushifujiwara.com/index.html
(Source: http://www.fuji-field.jp/asphalt/)
