Tag: photography

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Hiyayaakko Shop now live!

© Copyright Jaakko Saari

My shop is now live!

There are some really nice photographic c-prints, gelatin silver prints and of japanese style post cards.

Prints are shipped to any country in the world. International shipping is free with orders exceeding 7000 yen.
My store accepts Paypal and credit cards (credit card payments without paypal account).

Some of the photos are originals which were exhibited in my exhibition. For example, entire collection of my exhibition Maria is now in my shop.

I recommend to get your piece of history of photography before it’s too late.

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About my photography

I wrote in my old blog about my photography;

I used to hang out in bars and one of the most common question I was asked regarding my photos was “did you get a hard on?”. I try not to mind, and I sometimes just laughed and said “Of course!”. But in my heart I guess those comments always hurted me. These people have no idea.

and,

I was born naked to this world and my mother held me against her breasts. So I became alive. I became Jaakko. Without my mother’s love, I would not exist. There would be no world of Jaakko.

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10 Great Japanese Photo Books

Great Japanese Photo Books

Here is my list of 10 great Japanese photo books. The list is unordered and does not represent necessarily the greatest photo books there are. Japanese photography is amazing because it’s so diverse; all genres are so strongly represented. Myself I like certain kind of photography, so  I wanted to choose the ones that I love most.

Hotaru (Firefly)
Mizoguchi Yoshio

Kamaitachi
Hosoe Eikoh

Baby Baby
Kawashima Kotori

Satchin
Araki

Farewell Photography
Moriyama Daido

Nadia
Sawatari Hajime

Looking for Forest
Hayashida Setsuko

Nadya’s Village
Motohashi Seiichi

Degree Zero
Nakahira Takuma

Love and Death
Araki

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Notes:

  1. Although I like Miraichan by Kawashima Kotori and it’s important photo book I like Baby Baby even more . It’s lesser known, so it deserves a mention.
  2. I simply cannot mention Araki without mentioning both Love and Death and Satchin since both are his signature work.
  3. Hayashida Setsuko’s photo book “Looking for Forest 「森をさがす」of my hometown is a fantastic photo book.
  4. Although Moriyama Daido has published several important photo books I felt Farewell Photography is his strongest work.
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Neighbor

Beauty © Jaakko 2015

There is elderly couple living near my house. I and my son go to visit them every now and then.

Last time they cooked tempura, fried vegetables. And they have soft Mickey Mouse dolls which my son loves to play with.

After I took her photo, her husband said “Isn’t she a bijin (beauty)?”. What a beautiful people. Today my son asked, “don’t we go to see grandma?”. I thought he meant my mother-in-law, but then, I’m quite sure he meant her. My grandma is no longer in this world, but I can find similar spirit with these people. I feel like we are connected.

Taking photos spontaneously like this makes me realise that I can’t separate my photography from my daily life. Rather my life is my photography. So I made a promise to never leave my camera home.

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Meeting Araki

Araki Nobuyoshi and Jaakko Saari

I met Araki Nobuyoshi the other day. I told him about seeing his photos first time in Helsinki in his Kiasma exhibition. I had depression that time. He interrupted me, saying with excitement, “but your depression got cured (by my photo), didn’t it?” and bursted laughing. We all laughed. Because that was exactly what I was going to say.

His photos were huge shock for my virgin heart in early 2000’s. You know, especially Sentimental Journey. I just couldn’t stop crying after I first saw those. It was like life I somehow knew, it just happened to take place in Japan. Then, eventually,  after a decade I started taking photos too. This sounds so trite, I know, but Araki’s photos kind of opened door to my future and gave me the courage.

We talked about Bjork too, and he wondered if Bjork is famous in Finland. I happen to love her, and her Big Time Sensuality!!

Araki is like a huge ball of energy. God of photography. From my heart, I wish the grass is green under his feet and that his days are filled with joy.

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Why Photo

There is an article over in my Things blog about the reasons why I shoot.

“It’s like digging up these huge stones from the soil. You know, my father is a farmer, and he taught me how to clean up entire field from stones. Much like him, I am preparing my grave. He brought a shovel. I brought a camera.”
http://things.hiyayaakko.com/why-photo/

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Regarding Beauty

“Beauty” for me is something sacred, like something untouchable and something that isn’t from this world. It is just there for a very short time and it will disappear, like a beautiful ghost.

It’s so, very fragile and light. It is not meant to be touched, and it is not meant to be stared.  It is too pure for human hands to touch.

When I shoot,I’m just standing in this huge crystal clear river and I’m crying. For that moment it’s my world.