National treasure, a photo from Tokyo, Kanto

Photographer's Note

This is a portrait of the sculptor who made the statue I posted yesterday. My apologies for the poor quality of the statue photo. I have a 120 negative, I believe, that I could rescan and then the quality would be terrific.

This gentleman, as I noted before, had rather a unpleasant temeperament, but I was interrupting his work and he was nice enough to take me through his studio. I wish I knew his name.

I put down Tokyo as where he lived but it was outside Tokyo in some park I came across in my wanderings where I found his studio.

In any event character radiates from his face and I wish I knew more of his inner rage as shown in his work and face. I consider myself very fortunate to have met two "national treasures". Tomorrow I will show the other. He was a gentle and pleasant man who, in his youth, speared bears with a lance. A dangerous pastime!! He had, or so I was told, a ninth degree black belt in some martial art [Aikido?] and some fancy honor in tea ceremony. A remarkable combination in a remarkable country.

joso, SoupDragon has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

joso (2417) 2005-06-12 12:52

For an over 30 year old, scanned negativ an excellent quality, fine tones of grey.
The face tells a lot of stories, with your note even more.

I'll prefer a much tighter framing - see WS

János

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SoupDragon (652) 2005-06-13 7:46

You are right, there is SO much character in this capture of his face. Almost as if he is mocking you.
One of the best captures of a person that I've seen.
He could, of course, be anybody's Grandpa! The "Living National Treasure" title seems quite a lot for this chap.

The only thing I didn't like about this image was the tonal range. It looked compressed so I tried a WS to increase. Judging by some of your posts, you seem to prefer them the way they are - no offence intended!

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Suppaiku (85) 2005-06-14 4:09

I am sorry to bother people who proposed an improvement... If I gave my own opinion, I would say that I prefer this picture the way it is. Maybe a little sharper, like I am sure it is in prints would be better. But I like the richness of grey tones in this picture, and I believe a background is an important thing. This frame gives us part of his old body, contrasting with the thin malicious eyes we can see.
I like your picture very much, please keep it like this (only my opinion, of course).
Thanks for sharing all these old pictures. A great pleasure.