Between 1957 and 1972, a radical transformation in the language of photography took place in Japan, led by a group of photographers who began developing their work during the postwar period. This renewal occurred in parallel with the major economic, cultural, and psychosocial changes of this period, marked by social conflicts, primarily against the American legacy of the occupation.
In 1957, the exhibition The Eyes of Ten was held in Tokyo, featuring artists such as Toyoko Tokiwa—particularly interested in portraying working women—along with the photographers who would later form the VIVO agency (1959–1961): Eikoh Hosoe, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Kikuji Kawada, Akira Satō, Ikkō Narahara, and Akira Tanno.
VIVO ("Life" in Esperanto) was inspired by the Magnum Photos agency with the aim of forging a critical and subjective photography, in opposition to established conventions—to what was considered direct and objective photography—through the representation of clear concepts, meticulous compositions, carefully studied framing, and a strong sense of symbolism, thus seeking to express rather than simply document. The driving force behind his work, during this turbulent period, focused on the country's identity: its modernity and its past.
Shōmei Tōmatsu—who believed that photography was, above all, a means of individual expression with great artistic potential—invited Kōji Taki and Takuma Nakahira to participate in the research for Hiroshi Hamaya's 1968 exhibition, 100 Years of Photography: A History of Japanese Photographic Expression. Based on the research conducted for that exhibition, Nakahira advocated photography as evidence of subjective perception, mediated by the world and its objects. His work rejected the norms of photojournalism and its insistence on representing events in an "objective" manner. In 1968, together with Kōji Taki, Takahikoo Okada, and Yutaka Takanashi, he founded the magazine Provoke (1968–1970). Although this publication was characterized by a very distinct are-bure-boke (grain, sweep, blur) style, the aim was to provide new perspectives and reflect on the relationship between language and photography, and between art and political resistance, understanding photography as an alternative language.
For the second issue of the magazine, Daidō Moriyama was invited, whose work reflects a city in which sex and eroticism play a central role. He became one of the most renowned photographers of that generation and was a major influence on Tamiko Nishimura, a photographer who worked alongside him and who continues Provoke's thematic and aesthetic legacy.
The accompanying book for the exhibition The Gaze of Things. Japanese Photography in the Context of Provoke. Held at the Bombas Gens Art Centre in Valencia, from February 2019 to February 2020.
