Tokyo is a city characterized by dramatic shifts and changes. The shops you saw a few days ago would often no longer be there when you pass by them the next time. At other times, huge new glass-sided buildings suddenly appear. Likewise, Tokyo residents frequently change their looks.
The world undergoes drastic change every second. You can never see the same scene again. There is no better and more convenient tool than the camera for capturing the moments of constant change which the world is undergoing.
This Star of the Stars series is a portrait of club partygoers in Tokyo.
Over about four years I photographed nearly 600 people. This project is still ongoing.
On nights when club parties were held, I went to the party venue with a black background and a round fluorescent light and took pictures from late night to early morning from a small space I created in a corner of the club.
During the day the partygoers work in various fields, such as banking, art study, web design, boutique clerk, building cleaning and professional funeral services etc.. Their styles of fashion and body modifications, such as tongue splitting and tattoo, increase every day. Their false eyelashes and hair extensions are becoming ever larger.
Since their fashion and appearance would change from one party to another, I often photographed the same person many times believing that I was taking pictures of a different person.
Those people who watch the performances of worm-eating entertainers and the Tokyo Shock Boys and who dance all night to dark electro and anime songs remind me of an ancient shamanic service.
Yoichi Nagata is a Tokyo based photographer. He studied photography at Eikoh Hosoe workshop. He worked as a commercial photographer, and a commercial works such as Shu Uemura Cosmetics and Shiseido etc. published in Graphis Posters and Advertising Photography in Japan. and also in the collection of Shiseido Gallery.
Awards Awards:
“Center Forward” The Center for Fine Art Photography Director’s Honorable Mention 2011
“Natural World” The Center for Fine Art Photography Director’s Honorable Mention 2010
Critical Mass 2010 finalist
IPA 5 Honorable Mention
PX3 2010 Second Prize in Fine Art People
Roberto Del Carlo Lucca digital Photo contest09 finalist
PX3 2009 2 Honorable Mention
Exhibition:
"Star of the Stars" The Center for Fine Art Photography (U.S.A.) 2011
“Center Forward” Denver International Airport 2011 June~October
“Center Forward” The Center for Fine Art Photography(U.S.A.) 2011 May~June.
“Earthwork” Central Booking Gallery(N.Y. U.S.A.) 2011 April~June.
“Natural World” The Center for Fine Art Photography(U.S.A.) 2010 Dec.
“Digital10 Planet Earth” New York Hall of Science 2010 Oct.
“Celine Wu & Yoichi Nagata in Kontraste” Micheko Galerie (Germany) 2010 Jun.
“Poster&Poster” Art Rush Gallery, Tokyo, 1999
