Lens Work

 

Capturing the Japanese Tattoo

Detailed image of a phoenix tattoo. An artistic closeup photograph.

The first time I encountered irezumi happened when browsing a local bookstore. This book made an impression on me with it’s tall, slender, soft bound back bearing the title, The Japanese Tattoo. Thinking of it now, it’s undoubtedly affected the way I approach photographing my tattoo work.

The book is fairly common, not hard to find, though the images within were produced with an extremely rare Polaroid camera; only five were ever made. The photos, called plates, are the work of an American photographer- Sandi Fellman. The camera, which had a width and height of three-and-a-half by five feet, weighed over two hundred pounds. In little more than a minute, this camera could produce an instant photograph of twenty by twenty-four inches.

Check back next week for another installment of, Capturing the Japanese Tattoo.

 
Book, irezumi, Irezumi & PhotographyAsher Emersonphotography, the japanese tattoo, sandi fellman, Horiyoshi III, poloroid 20x24, local book stores