The fifth annual KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival (KG) kicked off on April 14th. Since its launch in 2013, the festival has attracted over 250,000 visitors to date. The event, which runs through Golden Week, has grown in size every year. It takes place at 16 locations, including Kyoto's historic buildings. Starting a week earlier than last year, the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom, and from the very first day, many Japanese visitors, as well as international tourists, were seen strolling around the venue, pamphlets in hand. The theme for 2017 was "LOVE." One of the main venues, the former ShinPuhkan building in Karasuma Oike, featured a free outdoor exhibition of photos of women wearing "LOVE" T-shirts from around the world, taken by Susan Barnett. Inside, an information center was set up, along with an exhibition of works by Katsuhito Yoshida and others. BMW Mobility, the festival's main sponsor, also offers a mobility experience program, offering rental BMW bicycles and the BMW i3 electric vehicle (weekends and holidays only). Chanel, which has sponsored the exhibition since its inception, is holding Robert Mapplethorpe's first major solo exhibition in Japan since 2002, as a traveling exhibition at Chanel Nexus Hall in Tokyo. A total of 91 works, including five platinum prints from the collection of architect Peter Marino, are on display in the Kondaya Genbei Takein-no-Ma room. This event is free to the public, so if you're visiting Kyoto during the period, be sure to stop by. Also, in the Kurogura room at the back of the venue, the first solo exhibition in Japan by Isabel Munos, winner of Spain's National Photography Award last year, is being held. "Family Album," a two-part series featuring gorillas and chimpanzees, is accompanied by "Love and Ecstasy," a previously unseen exhibition in the Tenku Hakga-no-Ma room, which is a striking sight.

At Mumeisha, located west of Kondaya Genbei, Yan Kallen, a Hong Kong artist who won the grand prize at last year's KG satellite event, "KG+," is holding a solo exhibition. The exhibition features works created during a four-month stay in Kyoto. The installation, based on the theme of "the space between light and darkness," takes place in a traditional Kyoto townhouse that is still used as a residence and is normally closed to the public. The key element of the work is a camera obscura (photographic mirror) exhibited alongside the photographs, which Kallen created in collaboration with a traditional Kyoto craftsman.

The first Japanese retrospective of Arnold Newman, a master of American portraiture, is being held in the kitchen and southeast corner tower of the Ninomaru Palace at Nijo Castle. The uniquely composed portraits of celebrities from a wide range of genres, including Picasso, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Dali, Stravinsky, and Saarinen, are a quintessential example of American culture. KG's exhibitions in a designated Important Cultural Property are a unique experience. It's a strange sight to see Andy Warhol's portraits alongside his painting of a BMW racing art car in Nijo Castle's Goten-dokoro (palace kitchen). Shimadai Gallery, a regular venue at KG, is showcasing documentaries by Dutch photographer Hanne van der Woude. At Gallery Sogata (free admission), located behind the Zenkashoin cafe, portraits of Japanese people recently taken in Japan by Giada Ripa, a descendant of the wife of the first Italian ambassador to Japan who visited in 1867, are displayed alongside her travel journals and landscape photographs by 19th-century photojournalist Felice Beato. At Ryosokuin Temple, a sub-temple of Kenninji Temple, Nobuyoshi Araki's "Desktop Paradise," first shown in Paris last year, has been retitled "Desktop Love," and is being shown for the first time in Japan. The exhibition features still lifes photographed on a desk, with a Zen temple garden as its backdrop. A calligraphy scroll also hangs in the detached tea room. At ASHODEL, located on Nawate Street in Gion, not far from Kenninji Temple, the popular art magazine TOILETPAPER is exhibiting an installation that allows visitors to immerse themselves in their world. The first floor is a sales space, while the second and third floors offer a swirl of colors through photography, graphics, interior design, and more. Meanwhile, at FORUM KYOTO, a new space in Kiyamachi, a drinking district rivaling Gion, Zanele Muholi is holding an exhibition titled "Black Lioness, Hurray!" South African visual activist Muholi, who identifies as a black woman and lesbian, has a stunning series of self-portraits. Other highlights include the Kyoto Museum of Art Annex, showcasing a 360-degree video installation of a 360-million-year-old cave by Raphael Dallaporta on the first floor. On the second floor, Swiss photographer Rene Groebli's 1954 work is open to the public, free of charge, along with a Nespresso lounge. Also, at the Horikawa Oike Gallery, east of Nijo Castle, is a solo exhibition by Okinawan-born Chikako Yamashiro, and at the Toraya Kyoto Gallery (free admission) on the west side of the Imperial Palace, a collection from the Guimet Museum of Asian Art is on display. Furthermore, starting April 26th, the agnès b. photo collection will be on display at the "Eki" museum on the seventh floor of the JR Kyoto Isetan department store. The exhibition will feature 70 pieces selected by Agnès herself from her art collection, including works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Nan Goldin, and Ryan McGinley.

In addition, as a satellite event, a huge nude work by Ijima Kaoru will be on display (free) at the newly renovated Kyoto venue, a former dyeing factory. The exhibition will be held at various venues, including the Golden Week period, such as the Noguchi Family Residence Karakuan, a traditional Kyoto townhouse that represents Kyoto, the former Junpu Elementary School, the lecture hall at the former Kan'innomiya Residence in Kyoto Gyoen, the Yoshida Dormitory, and Rai Sanyozan Shisuimeisho.

【Event Information】
"KYOTOGRAPHIE Kyoto International Photography Festival 2017"
Venue: 16 venues in Kyoto City
Dates: April 15th - May 14th
Price: General passport: 3,000 yen (allows entry to all venues excluding the "Eki" Museum once during the period), General Petit Passport (valid for one day only for three venues excluding the "Eki" Museum)): 1,500 yen, Students (university, high school, and vocational school students): 2,000 yen
*Separate fees may apply for the satellite event KG+ depending on the venue　

Text: Tatsuya Noda