Captured on Film: The Youth of Osaka’s Night Scene

Yusuke Yamatani (born 1985, Niigata Prefecture) spent his days jamming with bands before deciding upon a career as a photographer. Young people of outlandish appearance peer out from grainy, high contrast photographs in Tsugino yoru e (On to the next night), the photographic collection he self-published in 2013. According to Alison Bradley, Specialist in Photography and Independent Curator, the influences on his photos of the punks and skateboarders with whom he spent time in Osaka range from members of America’s alternative scene such as Larry Clark and Ryan McGinley to the Japanese masters Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama. Bradley sees in Yamatani’s ‘revelatory’ work an ‘unusual collision of youth’s freshness with visual maturity.’ This solo exhibition is his first to take place in a traditional Kyoto townhouse, where the integration of installation-type elements aims to evoke the spirit of the young people featured in the photographs.