GLOBAL PHOTO
COLLABORATIONS
VICE JAPAN
NOV 22, 2013 – FEB 14, 2014
BIOGRAPHY
VICE JAPAN
https://www.instagram.com/vicejapan/
VICE, a global youth company that operates in 35 countries, originally launched VICE Magazine in 1994 as a free magazine in Montreal, Canada. The magazine’s acerbic language and outstanding uniqueness has generated a huge youth following. 20 years later, VICE has expanded into a leading media company with divisions including VICE Magazine (published in 25 countries worldwide with a circulation of roughly 1.1 million), a website (VICE.com), a music channel (Noisey), a global art project (the creators project), a technology channel (Motherboard), and a channel dedicated to MMA’s fight culture （FIGHTLAND). VICE also has an official YouTube channel. The VICE JAPAN YouTube channel has attracted over 10 million views and over 80,000 subscribers.
Arvida Byström
https://www.instagram.com/arvidabystrom/
Artist. Born 1991 in Stockholm. Bystrom’s cutesy, girly photographs have attracted female fans worldwide. As well as being a regular contributor to VICE Magazine, she also models for the likes of Urban Outfitters and Top Shop.
Asger Carlsen
https://www.instagram.com/asgercarlsen/
Photographer. Born 1973 in Denmark. Known for his uncannily doctored black-and-white photographs that simultaneously appear elegant and grotesque. Titles include Wrong and Hester.
Ben Pier
https://www.instagram.com/ben_pier/
Photographer. Born 1980 in Missouri, U.S. Pier grew up in his hometown of Missouri before attending Columbia University to study documentary photography at age 19. Currently based in New York, he shoots for clients such as SONY, HTC, and American Express.
Kim Gordon
https://www.instagram.com/kimletgordon/
Musician, artist, designer. Born 1953 in the U.S. Bassist of legendary nineties alternative band Sonic Youth. In addition to her music career, Gordon’s creative endeavors include launching her own fashion line and working on film projects.
Maggie Lee
Photographer. Born 1987 in New York. Lee was raised by a magician father and contortionist mother. She has shot fashion features and a front cover for VICE Magazine.
Peter Sutherland
https://www.instagram.com/petersutherland/
Photographer, director. Born 1976 in Michigan. Currently based in New York. A longtime contributor to VICE Magazine. In 2004, he directed his first feature documentary, Pedal, about bike messengers.
Petra Collins
https://www.instagram.com/petrafcollins/
Photographer. Born 1992 in Toronto. VICE Magazine contributor. Assists photographer Richard Kern as a casting director when he shoots in Toronto. In 2013, Collins was considered one of Canada's top 30 young photographers under 30 years of age, by Bloun Artinfo.
Richard Kern
https://www.instagram.com/richardkernstudio/
Photographer, film director. Born 1954 in North Carolina. Known for his fetishistic photographic style. A longtime contributor to VICE Magazine, he frequently shoots fashion pages for the magazine and hosts his own VICE.COM series Shot by Kern.
Roger Ballen
https://www.instagram.com/rogerballen/
Photographer. Born 1950 in New York. Lives in South Africa since the ‘70s. A black-and-white photographer for over 50 years, he defines his own photographic process as a “fundamentally psychological and existential journey”. In 2012, he gained broad exposure with his collaborations with Die Antwoord.
Sandy Kim
https://www.instagram.com/sandycandykim/
Photographer. Based in New York. Following in the footsteps of Nan Golding and Ryan McGinley, Kim is the darling of the street art scene as it stands today. Her collaborations with Maggie Lee have appeared multiple times on the pages of VICE Magazine. In 2013, she held a solo exhibition at The Last Gallery in Tokyo.
Synchrodogs
https://www.instagram.com/synchrodogs_official/
Synchrodogs is the Ukrainian photographic duo of Tania Shcheglova and Roman Noven. Despite being newcomers, they have already won multiple awards in their native country including the 2011 Art photography award, the Photographer of the Year competition, and the International Photo Competition.
Fumiko Imano
https://www.instagram.com/fumikoimano/
Artist. Born 1974. In 2002, Imano was a finalist at the Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival for her self-portrait series. In 2012, she held her solo exhibition We Oui! as part of the Singapore Fringe Festival. In 2013, her exhibition “lost and found” in my heart was held at Opening Ceremony’s Shibuya Seibu store.
Jin Ohashi
Photographer. Born 1972. Awarded for Excellence in Canon’s New Cosmos of Photography competition at the age of 20. Ohashi has shot various album covers, TV commercials, and music videos. Titles include Me no Mae no Tsuduki and Ima (both Seigen-sha) and Surrendered Myself to the Chair of Life (Akaaka-sha).
Hitoshi Odajima
https://www.instagram.com/odazzi/
Illustrator. Born 1972. Odaijima has worked on countless album and book covers as a freelance illustrator since 1995. Books include the career-spanning ANONYMOUS POP (P-vine Books), as well as 2027 (Blues Interactions) made in collaboration with Kurando Furuya and Tomoki Kurokawa.
Ken Kagami
https://www.instagram.com/kenkagami/
Artist. Born 1974. Kagami has exhibited in various solo and group exhibitions, both in Japan and overseas. He has also designed T-shirts, collaborated with fashion brands, and created album covers. His works span from drawings and illustrations to sculptures.
Shintaro Kago
https://www.instagram.com/shintarokago1969/
Ero-guro manga artist. Born 1969. His career began in 1988 when his work first appeared in COMIC BOX magazine. Kago is known for depicting taboo themes such as the sexual and grotesque, the psychotic, and the downright wacky (like scat) with darkly humorous undertones. He previously had a monthly feature in VICE Magazine, and in 2008 his illustration graced the cover of the magazine’s global edition.
KYOTARO
https://www.instagram.com/kyotarokyotaro/
Artist. Born 1978. Known for her pencil drawings featuring animals and heavenly creatures. In 2012, she published four art books: Heaven’s Trip, The Baby Shower Story, I SAW A LOT OF FAIRIES, and the manga story MWUAI. In June 2013, KYOTARO’s drawings of imaginary creatures and gods from the book Heaven’s Trip were displayed across a dozen windows at the Isetan store in Shinjuku.
Masayo Koike
Poet, Novelist. Born 1959. After publishing her first collection of poems Walk Out of the Town of Water in 1988, Koike has been producing a variety of literary works including poetry, novels, essays, book reviews, and picture book translations. Her main poetic works include A Bus That Never Arrives (winner of the Gendai Hanatsubaki Award), The Most Sensual Room (winner of the Takami Jun Award), The Man Who Brings Rain, the Woodsman, and the Man Who Grinds Beans, The Voice that Echoes Through the Land, Baba, Basara, Saraba (winner of the Tozabro Ono Award), and Kolkata (winner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Award).
Ken Sone
Novelist, editor. Born 1964. Better known by his nickname ‘Pissken’, Sone is the chief editor of the street magazine BURST and editor of TATTOO BURST and BURST HIGH. In 2000, he was nominated for the 22nd Noma Literary New Face Prize for his book Burst Days.
Motoyuki Daifu
https://www.instagram.com/motoyukidaifu/
Photographer. Born 1985. In 2007, he was shortlisted for the 29th Hitotsubo Award. In 2012, he held his first overseas solo exhibition at New York’s Lombard-Freid Projects, and published his first photo book from San Francisco’s publishing company Little Big Man Books. Titles include LOVESODY and Project Family.
Masaru Tatsuki
Photographer. Born 1974. In 1998, he encountered the Japanese ‘decotora’ truck culture for the first time, and spent the next nine years shooting lavishly decorated trucks and their owners. The resulting works were published in 2007 in his book DECOTORA. From 2006, he began focusing on the Tohoku region of Japan, and released Tohoku in 2011. In 2012, he won the 37th Kimura Ihei Photography Award for the book. In 2013, he released KURAGARI, a series of deer photographs taken at night. Currently, he is focusing on a series showcasing his personal take on traditional Jomon pottery.
Daisuke Nakashima
https://www.instagram.com/daisuke_nakashima/
Photographer. Born 1983. In 2007 he was the co-grand prize winner in Canon’s 16th New Cosmos of Photography competition. In 2008, he released the book each other (Seigen-sha).
Keisuke Nagoshi
https://www.instagram.com/keisuke_nagoshi/
Photographer. Born 1977. Since 1996, Nagoshi has shot subjects on the margins of society such as squatters in LA, Chicanos (Mexican immigrants in the U.S.), as well as the Smokey Mountain and slums in the Philippines. Titles include EXCUSE ME, CHICANO, and SMOKEY MOUNTAIN.
Keiichi Nitta
https://www.instagram.com/keiichinitta/
Photographer. Born 1975. After moving to the U.S. in 1997, Nitta worked as the assistant to New York photographer Terry Richardson for six years. His print-friendly style has made him a go-to photographer for advertising campaigns and fashion spreads both in Japan and overseas. Titles include EVERYDAY IS LIKE SUNDAY (Go books), BOWERY BOYS（OHWOW）.
Miri Matsufuji
cargocollective.com/mirimatsufuji
https://www.instagram.com/mirimatsufuji/
Photographer. Born 1991. University student. Matsufuji began taking photography seriously in 2010. In 2012, she collaborated with Evisen Skateboards on a deck (titled ‘Yuribo’) that sold out instantly. Her main concern is to have as much fun as possible on a day-to-day basis since she mainly shoots snapshots revolving around her daily life. Matsufuji loves dogs.
Lu Yang
https://www.instagram.com/luyangasia/
Artist. Born 1984 in China. Yang’s work addresses themes such as science, biology, religion, mass culture, subculture, and music, through a variety of mediums including video art, installations, and digital paintings. She has exhibited internationally.
Ren Hang
https://www.instagram.com/renhangrenhang/
Photographer, poet. Born 1987 in China, currently based in Beijing. Hang began his photographic career in 2009 and has published five books. Due to his main subject matter –nude portraits – the Chinese authorities have censored him countless times in the past. In 2013, he was featured in an episode of The Art of Taboo by VICE JAPAN.
VIEW ARTWORKS
© Ben Pier & Peter Sutherland
© Ben Pier & Peter Sutherland
© Petra Collins & Arvida Byström
© Petra Collins & Arvida Byström
© Synchrodogs
© Sandy Kim & Maggie Lee
© Petra Collins & Arvida Byström
© Roger Ballen & Asger Carlsen
INSTALLATION IMAGES
VICE JAPAN SPECIAL INTERVIEW
-- Let’s start with a brief introduction to Vice and Vice Japan.
Vice started in 1994 in Toronto, Canada with the free zine Vice Magazine. In the years since then, Vice has grown into a global media group with branches in 35 cities around the world, delivering entertainment through all sorts of channels like the magazine, digital content, videos, and events. After a brief hiatus Vice Japan was re-launched in December 2012 as the Japanese branch of the company and focuses mainly on creating videos and articles for platforms like VICE.com and the Vice Japan YouTube channel.
--Tell us a bit about the concept and highlights of the exhibition.
This exhibition was inspired by the Japanese version of Vice Magazine that we published a limited run of last year November. Vice releases an annual photo issue that features contributions from both upcoming photographers active on the global scene that year as well as those known for their legendary work. Each time there is a different theme and contributors are allowed to run wild with in their photos.
The theme this time around was “artist collaborations,” so we paired up photographers who fit the Vice style with artists from different genres to create images together. We used one-third of the content from the American version, and then added another 16 people from Japan and 2 from China, so in the end we have an issue where over half of the pages are original Japanese content.
Magazines traditionally release new issues once a month, or perhaps each season. A magazine that is set to appear and disappear within a month is easily forgotten once its time has passed. I guess one way of putting it is that having a lifespan of just one month is what makes it possible to create the perfect stage for having fun. That’s why we were able to get the contributors to really cut loose with their most freeform ideas that they don’t get to use normally. By placing maximum importance on everyone having a good time while they worked, we were able to change the equation of simply bringing two artists together and saw creativity that was many times greater.
--Was there anything you found difficult or had to keep hush-hush when putting together the exhibition?
As I mentioned before, the project originated in the idea of doing a magazine, but it was already decided in the preliminary stages that we were also going to hold an exhibition. We couldn’t just think of things in two dimensions like we would with a magazine - we needed creative vision that would also look just as good in a three-dimensional space. So, it was necessary for me as the editor to set signposts to guide the contributing artists as they worked.
Also, since the theme was collaboration, we of course had the situation of two artists working on one piece. I think of artists as people who originally are engaged in a sort of “single person media” where they can transmit their ideas and emotions at maximum energy. So, it wasn’t easy to ask the artists to take part in a one-time collaboration. We needed to provide them with some sort of incentive to work together. That’s why we gave them chances to meet so that each piece came together carefully.
It was a question of how we could get the best flavor from the recipe of two artists working together while still keeping the image of the two venues of the magazines and exhibition in mind. Looking back on it, this is probably what required the most thought in making the show happen.
--Tell us a bit about the Vice Photo Issue itself. How did you decide upon things like the publishing process and the message you wanted to convey, as well as select the artists and collaborative teams?
Vice Japan’s reboot in 2012 was actually a reboot in a completely digital media format. Our intent was to avoid the recent decline of print media, so we went with a video format made our YouTube channel our main point of presentation. I think there’s no way you can compare the clearly massive reaction we have received in such a short time with that of Vice Japan when it was just a magazine. That said, our starting point will always remain the original Vice magazine.
Since it was founded all the way up to today, Vice has always remained free of charge. This is of course something is near and dear to a digital format, so it could be that Vice using vice.com and the YouTube channel as a delivery platform was an inevitability. But, it is still our mission to do a magazine. The free magazine Vice is about youth. When we pick it up and flip through the pages, it instantly frees us from all the mundane pain, worries, and sadness in our day-to-day lives and allows us to slip back in time to the freedom of our adolescence. I think that is something that is hard capture in the digital world where “free” is taken for granted and anyone can get anything.
We aren’t in it for the money at Vice. The limited number of copies is what makes the photo issue exclusive. You can’t buy it with money, so only the people who kept themselves tuned were able to get a copy. The experiences of tracking down the magazine are in way like fishing or bug catching back when we were kids. That big beetle you caught all by yourself is an irreplaceable treasure. That’s why we have had an endless stream of cries to bring back the Vice magazine since it has been out of publication for two years. The photo issue came into being as our way of responding to this feeling.
--Are there any people you would to interview or things you would like to cover someday?
Interviews come about because of the person being interviewed, so the interviewer doesn’t need to be anyone special. That’s why as long as we have the historical background and proper nouns relating to that person as prerequisite knowledge or a shared language, we can interview them simply by communicating as we would in any other conversation. So, it could be that we have already gone to speak with them before we even start thinking “someday.”
That said, I’m not the only person at Vice, so it’s the rest of the Vice staff in other countries who are meeting the people I want to meet and doing the things I want to do. But if we set all that aside for a bit, I guess my answer would be “aliens.” I’d like to jump on a spaceship and do some reporting on other planets.
We once put out a Film Issue that featured an essay called “The Documentary Crisis.” It was about the simple questions of why humans are so obsessed with continually making video documentaries, and who they are making them for. The conclusion was that we are making them to explain the human race to extraterrestrials. The article was meant to be a humorous criticism of documentaries, but ever since I read I’ve started to wonder sometimes if aliens are really the ones running Vice. That explains the mystery of why Vice is able to distribute all of its content for free (this is the question that I get asked the most since I started at Vice). It could be that we here at Vice have been given some sort of massive, global-scale mission...
http://www.vice.com/read/documentary-crisis-125-v16n9
--Do you have another issue or any other projects lined up?
We’re considering doing another Japanese version of the photo issue for 2014. We’ve also got videos that are even more intense than what’s up on the YouTube channel now, so make sure you stay tuned in.
Asger Carlsen + Ben Pier
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
Interview with Asger Carlsen
--Please introduce yourself.
My name is Asger Carlsen.
--How did you get connected with Vice?
I was contacted by the photo editor Christian Storm, it happen via email.
--What was it like collaborating for the photo issue?
It was quite special. Not everyday one gets to work with Roger Ballen.
-- Tell us a bit about your concept and creative process.
Roger and I talked on the phone and agreed that I should make images in my style and he would draw art works on top of my images. It came out so good that were now continuing our collaboration in to a book and shows.
--Though it was just for a short time, how was your stay in Tokyo?
Tokyo was the best. Maybe it’s my favored city ever. I hope to come back this year or next to do a solo show.
-- Do you have a message for the people who will see your work?
The work is open abstractions and can be taken anywhere as interpretations. I think Roger would say the same.
Interview with Ben Pier
--Please introduce yourself.
Hi. I'm Ben Pier from New York City!
--How did you get connected with Vice?
I picked up a Vice photo issue back in the early 2000's while I was on tour with a band called the Ghost. I was in photo school at the time and all the work and especially the edits really connected with me. I was making similar work at the time and hadn't really seen that style out in the wild before. It was very inspiring so I wrote the photo editor at the time (Tim Barber) and sent him a bunch of work and the next year I was in the photo issue!
--What was it like collaborating for the photo issue?
It was amazing. I really look up to Peter Sutherland and owe a lot to him - it was very cool to connect on something like this with him and it just seemed like we were hanging out - it was all very natural, easy going and fun.
--Tell us a bit about your concept and creative process.
I just go out and shoot as much as I can and then try and work themes and things out in the edits.
--Though it was just for a short time, how was your stay in Tokyo?
It was literally the best time I've ever had. I really clicked with the city and can't wait to come back for more.
--Do you have a message for the people who will see your work?
Hope you have fun with it and it makes you smile. You look so good when you smile.
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