"まちかどフリップフロップ " by NEKOPLA

 I must admit that, while being overall the artsy kind (I mean, I have a PhD in the damn thing...), I'm not huge on photography, be it artistic or otherwise. Not only I'm the kind that comes back from trips with like one picture (back when I had an Instagram, fidning stuff to actually post was a pita), but usually... I don't know, while I can appreciate a well constructed photograph, I just can't seem to 'get into' that perspective that makes simple framed takes on reality meaningful. Just a me thing, I guess.

I do make an exception for some currents, one of which is Japanese photography. Japan has, of course, a long and storied tradition of photography, both of the documentary and the artistic kind, of which I am not an expert and therefore not qualified to speak. Here are some names - I really like Shiga's by the way.  

And, of course, I enjoy the occasional photography dōjinshi. After all, one of my favorite dōjinka is chiefly a photographer. I also like covers that blend photography and manga, so getting my hands on NEKOPLA's まちかどフリップフロップ (Flip Flop at the corner of the road) came pretty easy. 32 pages, B6, full color, this dōjinshi conjugates what could be labeled as 'slice-of-life street photography' with an episodic narration that contextualizes each picture - a series of short vignettes, basically. Dates all the way back to 2013(almost on this very day! 14th of April). 

According to the foreword, the three tenets of this collections are "balance", "sort" and "fit", which I actually can sort of see as I peruse the crispy color pictures: NEKOPLA avoids strange angles and overly complex compositions, offering instead self-contained, pristine snapshots the sort of the character on the cover could be taking while taking a stroll through one of Japan's many suburbs. There is no search for an 'effect', but a more homely yet pleasant testimony of everyday life. The picture come, in fact, from a variety of locales, including Tokyo and Osaka. Quite refreshing.

So yeah, nice little collection for those who enjoy well presented photography. I recommend you follow NEKOPLA on Twitter, as they are still active and taking part in exhibitions all over central Japan. They even reprint some stuff, usually not the case with the dōjinshi I review!