JAPAN

It's insane how much time I spent sifting through images over at Okinawa Soba's Flickr account (fantastically beautiful images, they'll blow you away, promise).

These first two are by the photographer T. Enami. This "umbrella farm" (first image below, c 1905-1915) is what initially won me over.  Both this photo, and the one after, are surreal... and a little sinister in a way, right?  But then, I always go weak at the knees for strong graphic patterns and hand tinted photos...the colors, the colors, the colors.

From the original caption for "Umbrella Farm":

 Close examination of the original slide reveals that, aside from the interspersed varying green grass, Enami's colorist also applied over 700 individual curved applications of alternating yellow and red stripes to the umbrellas, rarely allowing any bleed outside the stripes. The orange "sunburst" patterns on the white umbrellas at lower right are free-form applications. 

I respect that! Because surely, if I were to undertake this level of minute detail, I'd want to gouge out my eyes with the paintbrush. Ahhh, I can be such a slob about these little things! (Can be? Who am I kidding?  Have I ever told you about the time I took architecture and made my first model by cutting—no, more like hacking!!— all of the foam board "by eye"? What's that you say? Floors should be parallel to ceilings???? Windows, rectangular? Psh.)



Below, a 1905 reprint of a late 1800s photo of a girl by T. Enami.

Below, geisha.  I saved this for the checkerboard.  Despite (or because of?!!) the fact that it looks like a Nascar flag, I can't look away! ...Checkerboard may just be working its way into my life in the near future, although, in what capacity I'm not sure...