かわいい

I have heard the word kawaii thousand times since I landed in the country of the rising sun. Iｔ didn't  take me long to understand that kawai is much more that a word, the kawai is the representation of the Japanese cute pop culture. Initially I tought that this culture is  a passing  trendy pop culture that youth adopt in order to proof their existance. However after I met Minnie－chan I understood that this kawai culture is  much more than what I imagined. My friend just as her last name indicates is a fan of the Disney character Minnie. Therefore from her clothes,phone,bag to her toaster, everything is carrying the picture of her cherished character.

I was really amazed when I saw her house that seriously was a miniaturized Disney land.
I like that culture in a way that it tells you a lot about the person without sharing any words. I also appreciate the fact that this kawai gadgets give a tender and human and cute touch to every household, train station,school, hospital and wait for it.....prison.yes prison;) I visited a Japanese prison two weeks ago and the first impression I had after entering it was that it looks more like a high school  than like a prison and that's mainly due to the presence of colorful pictures and gadgets at the entrance of  this "kawaii" prison.

I also  believe that by embarrassing the kawai culture the Japanese girls want to distinguish them selves from the mass especially after spending 12 years of their lives wearing standarized school wear.

The hugeeconomy behind the Kawii culture is very flourished. The profits of Sanrio Corporation, the creators of Hello Kitty are exponentially increasing. Their products are now spread worldwide and Sanrio Coporation reaps approximatively 3 billion dollars annually. Therefore the  Japaneese Kawaii culture is a representation of how consumerism can introduce new social proctices in a very conservatist milieu.

Finally I believe that the Japanese kawai culture have spread  worldwide and Pokemon, and hello kitty characters are found in the most remote aereas of the globe. However can we start considerating the Japaneese kawai culture as the new global word trendy pop culture?

The three pictures were taken from:

http://www.google.co.jp/imglanding?q=hello+kitty+world&um=1&hl=ja&rlz=1R2WZPC_jaJP387&biw=1895&bih=737&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=4rvau_VLUGucIM:&imgrefurl=http://www.freshbrainz.com/2007/08/boys-toys-and-new-hello-kitty-world.html&imgurl=http://www.evaair.com/NR/rdonlyres/FBD79435-E1A2-4711-8567-4E33D2ED49AC/1926/kt_plane1.jpg&zoom=1&w=300&h=255&iact=rc&ei=KsTaTN2dOomxcaKvxMMG&oei=KsTaTN2dOomxcaKvxMMG&esq=1&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=173&start=0&ved=1t:429,r:32,s:0

Leibovitz & Natchwey

      Natchway and Leibovitz do share the same passion of photography. They are both famous photographers whose pictures have towered the world. The difference is their pictures intended impact regarding the targeted subject. Natchway , as a war photographer, is more interested in showing the atrocity of war and injustice in the world's war-torn aereas. From Bosnia, Rowanda, Palestine, Indoniesia and Darfur, to name few, he was able to convey a very strong peace message throught war pictures. On the other hand , far from war, famine and booldy scenes,Leibovitz lense captures another world full of VIPS, stars and luxury.


 


Leibovitz

  



   

            Disney Dream Portrait Series by Ann Leibovitz





 

I believe that participatory methods either used in photography or antropology play a major role  in taking pictures and help draw conclusions that are closer to reality. Therfore, both photographers were very immersed in the environments they were taking pictures in.

I do prefer Natchway though. Truth be said, I initially was reluctant toward this type of photography . I always believed that photographers can never be objective while capturing reality. Each single person has a biase that sometimes is not even aware of. Following this logic I can conclude that Natchway does have a bias. Still, his bias is not seeking  political or capitalist ends. I believe that his humanism is his only biase.

Check this out:)

James Nachtwey's searing photos of war | Video on TED.com





West Bank, 2002 - Digging out the ruins of a shop in Jenin refugee camp (Natchwey).

 

After I have seen these two documentaries I kept wondering  if the two photographers were picturing the same world. The gap is so big to the exent that  it is hard believe that their shots are taken in the same planet.

Right now,while thinking about this, I can conclude that I do not prefer one photographer more than the other. They both are doing wondeful job linking the two distant "worlds" together. How could Jennifer Lopez know about the atrocity of war in Darfur without shots of  a war photographer and how could a little girl in Albania or Rwanda entertain herself looking at  pictures of Disney characteres without  a photgrapher such Leibovitz.

 I am looking forward  to discovering more photographers that picture other worlds of which I might ingnore the existance .

 I  strongly believe that every photographer is a gate to a new world!

Pictures:

1.Vanity Fair Magazine: http://pdngallery.com/20years/editorial/09_annie_leibovitz.html

2. Diney world picture by Leibovitz.

IA



Japaneese People

Her Nickname is Baby and she is my Nihonjin Friend. Technically she is my Piano Sensei and I am her

Arabic, French and English Sensei. Unexpetedly,just after our third meeting, our relationship transcended formality. Baby is a professional photographer.Her  photos are art which  testify moments of joy, fear and  love in the lives of hundreds of people. Today it was her turn to be photographed. I didn’t expect her to be  so reluctant to my request of taking a picture;she didn’t seem very enthusiastic. I wondered it that reaction were personal to her or if all photographers don't like having their picture taken.Even with her fine skill with photography she elected to make herself blurry in her own photographic portrait. 

Hirakata...

I am living in Hirakata neighborhood; the neighborhood where most of Kansai Gaidai seminar houses are located. The first day I walked to school, I kept staring at a fancy house and I was impressed by its architecture, its well designed door as well as it’s pretty little Garden.

 However, not all the houses of the neighborhood are the same. Some are very tiny like two rooms apartments; others are extremely huge with several floors. 

Some have gardens others not. I  was impressed by this because in my home country houses of the same neighborhood might look the same or at least belong to the same category single  apartment building, Villas or any other type of housing as long as it fits the city’s urban plan. This does not apply in Japan or at least in Hirakata.

Another thing that I found ABSOLUTELY unusual is that outside the house belongs to the house which means that people leave their belongings such as shoes , umbrellas and bikes at the entrance of the house which technically means in the street. I am impressed by how safe it is.

In the two first weeks, the neighborhood represented for me a set of buildings I cross on my way to and back from the school.A place where I  had to be quiet when my friends and I come back late at night not to disturb the neighbors. Those people were complete strangers for us and we were living in our little island cut off from the world. Three weeks ago, I started to go jogging at 6 Am in the park next to my seminar house. The first day I went jogging I was scared not to find anyone. I was surprised once in the park as there were dozens of people running. Day after day, those people became used to me and my friends's presence. We started to greet them, they started to talk to us, encourage us to run more and invited us to do yoga with them. One day I couldn’t go jogging and I was surprised when I knew that they asked my friend about me. This changed the way I perceive my neighborhood upside down. Now I don’t feel cut off from the world anymore. I feel I belong and there is no better feeling than belonging!

My early Impressions about Japan!!

I tried to recall when I started to build early impressions about Japan and found out that this happened much earlier than when I landed in Kansai Airport. I discovered Japan gradually.  My first impression about Japan goes back to when I was five and my parent’s German friends offered me a  book about the art of Origami. I was always impressed by how we can make extraordinary things using an A4 white paper. Then came the phase where I started to watch the Japanese anime Inspector Konan that was in Japanese and subtitled in Arabic. 


On the other hand my Moroccan background impacted my first impression about Japan. There is a famous joke in Morocco saying that a Moroccan visited Japan and  didn’t get  up early and  the Japanese thought he died buried him. This reflects the general stereotypes we, Moroccans, have of Japanese people. We generally imagine them as people who look all alike, who eat rice are extremely intelligent and work hard all the time. I made sure that this was true after reading a book of the Writer  Amelie Nothomb <Stupeurs et Tremblements>talking about her experience working in a Japanese corporation. I started to get rid of my stereotypes after I met Amina, a friend of mine who lived in Japan. She was quite upset when I told all the non-sense  I had in mind. The following day she offered me a book of the Japaneese writer Yanasuri Kawabata. It is thanks to this book that I am posting this article today, that I am taking visual anthropology … that I came to Japan! Through his writing, Yasnasuri Kawabata showed some little details of Japanese life and Japanese people that impressed me. I loved this book, this culture and started to know that Japan is more than Sushi, manga and kimonos. When I had to decide where to go for my exchange semester my three choices were: Japan, Japan, Japan…