Yoshihiro Tatsuki, who is celebrating his 60th year as a professional photographer, opened his largest-ever photo exhibition at the Ueno Royal Museum on May 23rd. 720 works were displayed in the exhibition rooms on the first and second floors of the main building. The title, "Era x Yoshihiro Tatsuki Photography Exhibition 1959-2019 x," coincidentally represents the same number of photographs as 12 months x 60 years. Additionally, 70 monochrome works, taken using the 1:1 function of a digital camera, dubbed "Digi6," a play on the Japanese character for "6 x 6" (rokuroku), were also displayed in the gallery space. The unprecedented number of works, totaling 790, is truly impressive for a solo exhibition. The exhibition also features eight photographs of Momoe Yamaguchi, including one about the time when she wrote her best-selling novel, "Aoi Toki," which sold two million copies, in Tatsuki's studio. Other portraits of famous people, some of which have never been published before, range from deceased figures such as Shintaro Katsu, Akira Kurosawa, Masako Natsume, Reiko Ohara, Shuji Terayama, and Monsieur Kamayatsu, to athletes like Yutaka Take and Koji Takahanada, and writers like Takeshi Kaiko and Renzaburo Shibata. Additionally, a collection of Japanese archives capturing the "good old days," including Mariko Kaga's photo book "Private Life" (1971), along with early photographs from "anan," serve as a chronicle of fashion culture.



"In this (celebrity) section, it's all about the approval of the models and the order in which the exhibits are displayed. Just by looking at whose photo is lined up next to Jakucho Setouchi, you can understand how difficult this is. By the time it opens to the public tomorrow, I'll be retreating to the countryside (for fear of complaints)," he joked, a comment only a legend who has been alive since the dawn of Japanese commercials could make.



On the second floor, you'll find an overwhelming number of "naked" snapshots of towns and villages in America, Europe, Africa, Cuba, and Japan, depicting everyone from South Bronx gangs to the KKK in Alabama.



"It's a mixture of good and bad (lol). It's by no means a collection of masterpieces. I just hope that people who look at these photos will take something from them and find them interesting." "Photographs don't capture the inner self. Photographers and people who look at them sometimes get that wrong (lol). That's why I carefully capture the outer self." "From Showa to Heisei to Reiwa, from the 20th century to the 21st century, from silver plate to film and then digital, but the word 'photography' remains the same." "Snapshots are about how you can slip into the times. The fun of it is hard to put into words." "This is not a culmination, but a passing point." "Uphill and downhill are both the same slope."





Text by Tatsuya Noda