As I have written in my previous blog, I have special feelings towards Paris and New York.
For me, New York represents the United States herself. I’ve never had any negative feelings towards the U.S. since the war time had been over for a long time.
But still, whenever I saw foreigners, I automatically thought they were Americans. Disney movies, Tom & Jerry, MacDonald’s and Jeans, or a TV series I Married A Witch… they all influenced me in so many ways.
And yet nothing from the States felt real to me. My parents are from the war era, so they didn’t like the States. Even so, my father used to like Hollywood films. Neither my mother nor I liked those movies; maybe because they were mostly about gangs or wars. The major film he liked was The Godfather. I just wasn’t a big fan of the killing scenes. Just so you know, currently I came to think that film is a masterpiece.
My father used to sit beside me when I was going to sleep. He was probably afraid that I would feel alone. I had heard of the word Broadway even though I had never actually watched any musicals, even on TV, but somehow I kind of got the feeling that it was something fabulous. I only learned the idea of Broadway in movie reviews and stuff. Like Singin’ in the Rain, Funny Face, An American in Paris, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The very first movie I saw in a theater was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and I loved it the best. Also there was this movie called Love Story which was kind of sad, and this one actually changed my view towards America.
For me at that time, people in strange countries having real life just like I did didn’t seem so realistic. And when that movie showed me a bit of reality, I started to want to know what it was like in New York.
But I also had this bad, unsafe image towards NY compared to Paris. I had heard that there were muggers in Paris too, but as for NY, I heard of things like you can buy guns at supermarkets or that it’s too dangerous to get on a subway. That’s part of the reason I visited NY 13 years after I visited Paris.
My first visit to NY was at the end of February, and it was very cold. The snow was flying around, and the steam was coming from the ground. It was very photogenic. I liked the atmosphere during the day too. I was with my assistant/translator, and he told me this story that in 5 years of his stay in NY, he had been attacked 3 times, hit on the head by the back of a gun, and all those 3 times, he woke up in a hospital. It scared me very much. I bet he had his camera bags and stuff too.
I was staying in a nice hotel in Manhattan, and whenever I was off work, I went to Metropolitan museum or MOMA with my manager Mari Kogure. When we were walking back from MOMA enjoying the city view, there was a sudden blizzard and we totally lost the site of our guide, a big building that always led us back to the hotel. Just as when we thought we’d be lost and die in a blizzard, an African American lady came up to us. We showed her our hotel key, and she literally took my arm and took us back to the hotel. It was very memorable. For Japan being such an isolated country, we could be not so friendly towards foreigners, but incidents like this really made me learn.
To think about it, I have been helped so many times by people’s kindness, everywhere: like Germany, Britain, or Italy.
That’s why whenever I see foreign people in trouble in Tokyo, I try to help them as much as I can. Doesn’t matter where they are from; they can be from Europe, Korea or China… I try to help them even though I don’t speak any of their languages.
Anyway. So I was very influenced by NY during my first visit there. And for my recent visit, this person I knew introduced me to his friend there. I mean, I could use a fried or two when when I go out to eat. It’s ok to eat alone but sometimes having a company would be nice too. This time, I walked around alone with my camera, took many pictures. It was at the end of summer, so the weather was nice and it was rather nice trip.
The last time I was in NY, I was mainly shooting people, but I looked around the city quite a bit. But for this visit, I had become more into shooting cities, and I walked around the same city again. Also I became very certain that I truly liked this city. It reminded me of Shibuya in some sense. My shooting of this city has just started. And I know that so many great photographers have tried everything to shoot this city, so it is going to be difficult.
But I promise to myself that I will photograph my own New York, and exhibit them in this city.
Chrysler building, famous in the opening of the TV series, Sex and the City.
Translation: Natsuki Yamada (http://twitter.com/72nats), editor/writer of 10. Magazine. (http://10tenmag.com/)