This is the new edition of Shin Noguchi’s book In Color In Japan, which appeared first in 2020. I saw this first edition from my friend Bouwe just after I had received my copy of the new edition. I did not compare the selection of the pictures with those in the latest edition. The print quality of the images in the new book, however, was obviously so much better than the print quality of the pictures in the first edition that I would safely state it is well worth buying the new edition even if you already have the old one.

Shin Noguchi is broadly known under the category of street photographer, and he is a member of the street photography collective Up.

Avoiding the definition-question of street photography and its slur of religious and esthetical fundamentalist discussions, I would say that Noguchi’s style and subject matter are much more in the realms of Luigi Ghirri and William Eggleston, with the humoristic twist of Martin Parr. Noguchi combines this with personal documentation of his family life, which is intimate and loving. In general, when Noguchi captures people, he does this with a lightness and compassionate feel. He never gets negative or vicious in his depictions.

You find strange objects in Noguchi’s images: a tram behind a fence, a car stuck on a staircase in a park, large balls in a garage box, one white, one red, a dog dressed up as a lion in the streets of Tokyo. What is going on in Noguchi’s world?

Noguchi observes the world around him and finds its oddities. He views his Japanese environment like a stranger. He could be a tourist in his own country. With a minimalist approach, he captures a KFC shop front and a fluorescent light bar in a red room (a clear reference to Eggleston), with the same curiosity as in typical Japanese situations, such as people dressed in manga suits in the streets of Tokyo and ladies in kimonos. He finds pictures in a torn curtain, a spot of light in an empty sports hall, and a picture of a billboard in front of Mount Fuji, displaying Mount Fuji itself.

Noguchi is not your typical street photo hunter. He is a craftsman who creates remarkable pictures from the unremarkable, with great precision and skill.

If you enjoyed this, you might also like my thoughts on William Eggleston’s Ancient and Modern, a book that redefined color photography.

You can find In Color in Japan on the Eyeshot photobook publisher website, the publisher known for its Street Photography and Documentary Photography editions.