Christopher Pelham

Writing

I had circled the KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Photographer Group WOMB’s 10th Anniversary exhibition as one not to miss. I was attracted to WOMB’s mission, which seemed to offer a feminine gaze yet take a metaphorical and expansive rather than body-centered view of a womb’s function. A small collective of Japanese female photographers (Masami Ueda, Rino Kawasaki, Kalina Leonard, Sana Kohmoto) who have been publishing WOMB photography magazine since September 2013, WOMB says they named their group and magazine to evoke “things that no one knows yet, a place where things are born (and grow).” Fortunately, I was able to meet two of the photographers, and among my many experiences at KYOTOGRAPHIE, this exhibition proved to be a highlight. Read more on https://onlylove.art 

You can find WOMB online and subscribe or order back issues at https://womb.theshop.jp. 

While each issue mostly contains photographs, there is also text, including essays, presented in both English and Japanese. 

You can follow WOMB on Instagram at @wombmagazine #wombmagazine #womenphotographers #kyotographie #kyotographie2024 #photojournalism #photographywriting #onlyloveart #photographymagazine
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https://onlylove.art/archives/1087 
On a sunny 5th of May — Children’s Day in Japan — I made my way to what seemed like an unlikely venue, Mifa Football Cafe, for a matinee child/family-friendly concert and luncheon called “Song of the Earth,” organized by the J-Pop singer Asuca Hayashi 林明日香. Mifa is located in Toyosu, one of a series of artificial islands in Tokyo Bay just southeast of the former Tsukuji Fish Market in Tokyo, a strange but fitting location. Both Asuca and the people of Tokyo were charting a new course in pursuit of more healthy, sustainable lives. 

#asucahayashi #林明日香 #toyosu #musicjournalism #musicphotography #womeninmusic #songoftheearth #mifafootballpark #teamlabplanets #konicaminoltaplanetariatokyo #pokémon #jirachi
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My encounter with the well-known — but new to me — pianist Hitomi Nishiyama 西山瞳 at SUB Jazz Cafe, a seminal jazz club in Osaka, took me to places I never expected. Although she was playing jazz standards with a makeshift band, her music and career, characterized by curious changes in direction and exquisite elaborations on connections previously unrecognized, set us free. 
https://onlylove.art/archives/1059 

#hitominishiyama #subjazz #subjazzcafe #musicjournalism #jazz #heavymetal #osaka #onlyloveart #womeninjazz #womeninmusic #jazzpiano
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https://onlylove.art 
Masahiro Usami creates art, photographic mandalas, by undertaking a journey, as much relational as through time and space, to understand and capture the essence of a community’s journey in collaboration with that community. In his words, “Each individual photograph [in his long-running mandala series] features a central figure, all of whom come from different regions and standpoints, and then distributed in their environs are the people and things that express the world of that particular figure, just like the form of a Buddhist mandala painting.” His latest depicts the confrontation between citizens and developers over a proposed radical redevelopment of a beloved and historic park in the heart of Tokyo. 

#masahirousami #kyotographie #kg+select #kgselect #photography #mandala #mandalas #meijijingugaien #kyoto #tokyo #meijijingu #eastriverpark #artjournalism #onlyloveart
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https://onlylove.art 
One of the exhibitions I most enjoyed visiting during my all-too-brief stay in beautiful Arles, France to take in the Les Rencontres D’Arles de la Photographie was not in the festival at all. Instead, Valentina Benigni’s solo exhibition “Dancing Vulnerability” was a part of the concurrent Festival Off Arles.

With 26 exhibitions, some quite large, scattered around Arles, Les Rencontres D’Arles did not leave me much time in my brief stay to check out other shows, many of which I hurriedly passed by. However, Valentina’s exhibition announcement posted on the street featuring a brilliant photograph of what looked like a flamenco dancer with skirt awhirl cried out to me. 
https://www.valentina-benigni.com
#valentinabenigni #flamencodancer #flamenco #flamencophotography #dancephotography #dancejournalism #artswriting #artsjournalism #onlyloveart #festivaloffarles #arles
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On my second night in Kyoto, I went to Jazz Live Candy in Gion to see the trio of Kotono Nishimura 西村琴乃 (alto and soprano sax), Yuka Yanagihara 柳原由佳 (piano), and Ayuko Ikeda 池田安友子(percussion). I was not familiar with any of them, but from the start, I found their set, inspired by the spring season, infectious, rhythmically adventurous, and uplifting.

https://onlylove.art/archives/979

#西村琴乃 #柳原由佳 #池田安友子 #jazzlivecandy #musicphotography #womeninmusic #womeninjazz #jazzjournalism #kyoto #onlyloveart
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https://onlylove.art/archives/936
 In this article we explore the inspiring images of “You Don’t Die — The Story of Yet Another Iranian Uprising,” an exhibition that was part of this year's Kyotographie international photography festival in Kyoto, Japan.

The photographs were culled from 1000s of mostly anonymous images of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising inside Iran, collected and authenticated by Le Monde photo editor Marie Sumalla and Le Monde journalist Ghazal Golshiri and displayed alongside photographs by several professional Iranian photographers inside Iran.

#kyotographie #womanlifefreedom #mahsaamini #mahsa_amini #mahsaaminiمهسا_امینی #iran #jina #مهسا_امینی #freeiran
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https://onlylove.art/archives/867

Dancer/Choreographer Miwako Inagaki 稲垣美輪子 
https://miwako-inagaki.jimdosite.com

Chizuko Kotani 小谷ちず子 + Hajime Totani 戸谷 肇
Haruna Ueno 植野晴菜 + Riryong Ko 高梨玲
Luan Banzai

#urbanguild #dancewriting #dancephotography #butoh #gaga #onlyloveart #kyoto #kyotodance #kyotounderground #miwakoinagaki
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https://onlylove.art/archives/867
In this article we write about
Chizuko Kotani 小谷ちず子 + Hajime Totani 戸谷 肇
Miwako Inagaki 稲垣美輪子 
Haruna Ueno 植野晴菜 + Riryong Ko 高梨玲
Luan Banzai

#urbanguild #dancewriting #dancephotography #butoh #gaga #onlyloveart #kyoto #kyotodance #kyotounderground #gaga
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https://onlylove.art/archives/826
A visit to MUSE (Music Unites Special Education), a certified NPO founded in Sendai City by pianist Atsuko Nishina in 2001 to increase the opportunities for people with special needs to touch highly artistic music and art and express themselves freely through artistic creative activities, with composer Aya Nishina 仁科彩 and her partner, the visual artist Shimpei Takeda 武田慎平, afforded me the opportunity to understand their creative work more deeply and to recognize that their art and their teaching work, while different in form, have the same purpose, each informed by and expressing the same universal spiritual principles that, in fact, guide all true healing work.
#muse #sendai #ayanishina #atsukonishina #shimpeitakeda #disabilities #differentlyabled #autism #art #kotoriforest #music
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https://onlylove.art/archives/612

I took a day to visit Ishinomaki, a city a short train ride to the north of Sendai that had suffered the greatest loss of human life during the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and ongoing nuclear disaster but has since shown remarkable spirit and creativity in rebuilding and moving forward.

#ishinomaki #rebornartfestival #mihotsujii #nawakohei #bicafenatsume #damienjalet #olinkhouse #rebornartstand #momonouravillage #miyagi
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