Provoke was "a platform for a new photographic expression","to free photography from subservience to the language of words" "that stood in opposition to the photography establishment". It has been described as having "lasted for only three issues, but had a profound effect upon Japanese photography in the 1970s and 80s" and "spread a completely new idea of photography in Japan."It was a quarterly magazine that also included poetry, criticism and radical photographic theory. There is a particular way of capturing images within provoke, it is often that his black and white, it focuses on its own society and creates its own imagery within the reaction against the war, also known as documentary photography and social photography.
The aim of the influential Provoke movement was to "rethink the rigidified relation between word and image, and to create 'new language, in short, new thought.' Founded by Koji Taki and Nakahira Takuma in late 1968
Daido Moriyama
Moriyama's approach to taking images are that he searches for his own desires within humans, he states that every human has a desire, and he finds what to capture within looking for his own, and he also states that photography is an expression of our desires. Within his own desires is seeing the erotic, and capturing those that will portray his desire. He's similar to Nick Waplington and Henri Cartier-Bresson that he will take images of something he sees in the moment. He produced a collection of photographs, Nippon gekijō shashinchō, which showed the darker sides of urban life and the less-seen parts of cities. In them, he attempted to show how life in certain areas was being left behind the other industrialised parts. He uses a compact camera instead of a big camera, as it is more easier to run around with and to use, it also doesn't make people uncomfortable compared to when they see a big camera lens in their face, as a compact camera is more discreet. He also likes the intensity of the city's character, and can't photograph anything without a city; he would take snapshots in the movement of himself and the outside world. His main interest in photography is producing books, he believes that there is no start or finish to a book, it can start whenever and finish wherever. Daido's approach to editing his images, are that they will appear how it is due to his body's instinctive response, as the colour will determine the decision making. He also thought that monochrome has stronger elements of abstraction and symbolism. Even as a well known photographer, he also has the constant thinking of 'what is photography' 'what is right or wrong'. But he chooses to express it in his own way, he says that the images relate both the photographer and the viewers memories, as at first sight a photograph will look straightforward, until it is looked at again, which the viewers whole perspective of the image will change, this shows the ambiguity of photography, and its double meaning; photography will only ever be open to people's own interpretations and not what they are told. As a whole group we described a selection of his images as: grainy, dark, blurry, mysterious, eery, chaotic, ambiguous, contrasting, claustrophobic, incorrect, gritty, spontaneous, anxious, rough, out of focus, etc.
Yutaka Takanashi
Takanashi was a contributor to the influential photography magazine Provoke, which rejected the conventions of photojournalism to pursue a subjective photographic style. His work ' the city of tokyo' is the central subject of the two series. people in tokyo focuses on the developing district of Shinjuku from the mid-1960s, meanwhile towards the city, is taken in the early 1970s and examines the metropolis of Tokyo as the typical modern city. Both sequences reflect a period of transition in Japan, as the country assumed its role as a global economic power but also experiences the infiltration of western culture. "As a photographer, he moved between two extremes – on the one hand, a “hunter of images” who aims to capture the invisible; on the other, a “scrap picker” who only picks up what is visible" - https://priskapasquer.com/yutaka-takanashi-towards-the-city-including-a-short-history-of-the-provoke-era-part-3/
My Response
For these images, I thought most of the images were in a Daido Moriyama style, although I would of preferred the images if I took more images with more people in them. My favourite images were the first 5 images, as I thought they represented "provoke" the most. As the effect of the image was grainy, yet it still contrasted well with the black and white, I liked the lighting of it was still in colour and when I edited it to black and white I used some apps called 'snapseed' this app gave the option of making the images grainy and black and white, also there was a filter called 'noir' which made the images provoke-like. I also liked that the images had a vintage feel to them, as the filters made the image look outdated, as if it was taken on a film camera in the 80s. To improve my images, I'll aim to find places with a better scenery, or I'll go to more busy places where a lot of people will be situated like Daido Moriyama did.