TOKYOITES

Leica Galerie Milano

Eolo Perfido Street Photography Exhibition @ the Leica Galerie in Milan

20 September 2016 - 5 November 2016
 

Tokyoites  - like foreigners call the people of Tokyo - look like they are always on the run. They walk fast just like they always know where they are headed, with their eyes stuck on their smartphones any time they have to stop, on a subway or at a traffic light.

In my very first trip to Tokyo, as a kid, I did not have a camera with me. I instantly fell in love with it.

In between past and future, tradition and innovation, Tokyo, since that very first trip have always been the center of my intellectual curiosity.

I believe my attraction towards Japan somehow obey the classic rule of the opposites attracting themselves, and partially due to the mediatic marvelous contaminations that featured my life and right after my profession since the early 80s onwards.

Tokyo sports so many different lifestyles, so many different people and districts in contrast between them that it is quickly very clear that she is not just a city but many smaller different cities, in constant movement and mutation.

The Gaijin's eye - Japanese word meaning "someone external to Japan" - helps spotting some of the most common details about the majority of the Tokyoites so that their appearance in public are the center around which I have been building my street photography work.

Able to get isolated onto a wall just to answer a phone call or consulting a map, they define a quite unique concept of personal space. The contrast between the high density population and the isolation of the individual is evident.

In a city like Tokyo what could look like a limit, often turns into virtue, necessary to its survival. Not just cultural imposition but adaptation that permits an harmonic coexistence of over 16 millions of people.

Citizens quickly move non stop among streets, stations, synchronized like in a dance, quietly and in order without clashing, without bothering each other.

Life in the metropolis have taught me that isolations has nothing to do with how many people we cross in our journeys or those who we have to necessarily get in touch with.

Nevertheless in my Tokyo trips i learned to have observed a different kind of loneliness, never shouted, but privately hidden in order to look like a delicate sentiment.

Every single street picture of mine is born with the ambition of living on his own. The stories or abstractions suggested from whatever is that remains tangled up in the picture frame, do not aim to influence that of the next frame.

When looking back to all the pictures i took in those years, i do not see them as many little individual stories but as parts of an unforeseen whole new story, raising among the memories of days passed with my camera around the neck, among thousands of souls, brushing against in the deep loneliness of their personal boundaries, like in a crowded Tokyo crossroad.

The Exhibition

His creative path has allowed him to win several major awards in the field of creative photography. In 2009 he was awarded the first prize of the National Association of Italian Professional Photographers Tau Visual for the creative quality of its images.

In 2010 he was awarded the "Best International Photographer" during the exhibition “Photo Vernissage” which was held at the Manege Museum in St. Petersburg, which saw the participation of hundreds of photographers from around the world.

Leica Galerie Milan

The Leica Galerie Milano, placed in the fascinating Duomo square, is the perfect place to live your passion for photography.

In the gallery are shown exhibitions of the most important photographers of the past and the present, and are periodically held talks, lectures, and opportunities to meet the most significant professionals in photography.

In addition, the bookshop will offer you a wide selection of the best photo books from Italian and international authors.

Tokyoites - Eolo Perfido Street Photography Exhibition
20th September 2016 - 5 November 2016

Via Giuseppe Mengoni, 4, Milano.

I would like to show my gratitude to all the people involved in this project, starting Leica Camera Italia, Andrea Pacella, Giada Triola, Maurizio Beucci and all the Leica Galerie Staff.

I'd love also to thank Davide Di Gianni (www.digida.net) for the great prints and my studio manager Antonella Catanese for the preproduction, press and communication efforts.

A special thank also to all the Tokyo Street Photography 2016 Leica Akademie Workshop participants.
It was great to spend time with you guys in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

さようなら。