For photographers, hometowns are still a fascinating motif that arouses their photographic desires. Sasebo-born photographer Osamu Matsuo will release "HEAVY METAL," the third volume of his publication project "THE SASEBO PROJECT.
This project is a project in which Matsuo, who is active as a photographer in Tokyo, brings a journalistic viewpoint to the atypical charms of his hometown of Sasebo, bringing a new Sasebo into relief. This is a project with a high degree of freedom, with the method of photography and the binding of the photo book changing each time it is published. The theme of the latest book is "Men working in shipyards!
The city developed as a military port in the Meiji period (1868-1912), and is full of "triggers" such as the U.S. Navy base, facilities of the Maritime and Ground Self-Defense Forces, shipyards, a drinking district that has grown beyond the city's size, a cityscape full of hills, and bizarre murders that occur frequently, just to name a few. The list goes on and on.
Among them, the men working in the huge shipyard "stirred up an urge in me to stare at them," according to Matsuo.
The exhibition and sale will focus on portraits of men working in shipyards covered in oil and rust, carrying tools around their waists, which I have felt like characters in science fiction movies and western movies since elementary school.
This film is a step or two beyond the sort of straightforward act of photographing one's hometown. The portraits of men that make you simply want to gaze at them are full of ineffable charm.
Text_Ryo Komuta
THE SASEBO PROJECT 03 Osamu Matsuo Photo Exhibition "HEAVY METAL
Dates: August 19, 2016 ( Fri )~August 31, 2016 ( Wed ) <8月22日のみ休館・入場無料>
Hours: 11:00 - 21:00 <日曜日~20:00・最終日~18:00>
Place: Omotesando ROCKET
Address: Omotesando Hills Dojunkan 3F, 4-12-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03-6434-9059
Opening Party:8/19( Fri. ) 19:00~21:00
www.rocket-jp.com
HEAVY METAL
Photo and text by Osamu Matsuo
Art Direction: Keisuke Nakamura ( Nakamura Graf )
Design: Shohei Yoshida (white three-dimensional)
Specifications: B4 odd edition (265 x 364 vertical book ), cloth-bound, 112 pp.
Published by STUH
Distributed by Nippan IPS
Release date: August 26, 2016 ( Kim ) *Pre-sale at the photo exhibition Price: 4,500 yen + tax
Osamu Matsuo
Photographer, born 1970 in Sasebo, Japan, currently living in Tokyo, Japan, published in 2008 "Someone else's Album" ( Sanctuary Publishing ), 2010 "School Road" ( Plankton ), 2012 "Photography Theory" ( Plankton ), 2014 "TSP01 Slope and Crane" ( Stu ), and "TSP02 Someone's Idol" ( Stu ) in 2015.www.stuh.biz/osamumatsuo
thesaseboproject( thesaseboproject)
This is a publication project by photographer Osamu Matsuo that documents Sasebo, a military port and shipbuilding town hidden by mountains and the sea on the western edge of Kyushu.
www.thesaseboproject.com
