Provoke
Provoke, with its subtitle of Provocative Materials for Thought, was a Japanese photography magazine founded by Yatuka Takanashi and Takumah Nakahira, critic Koji Taki, and writer Takahiko Okada in 1968. Provoke was "a platform for a new photographic expression", "to free photography from subservience to the language of words". It has been described as having "lasted for only three issues, but had a profound effect upon Japanese photography in the 1970s and 80s" and "spread a completely new idea of photography in Japan." The Provoke manifesto stated that visual images cannot completely represent an idea like words can, yet photographs can provoke language and ideas. The photographer can capture what cannot be expressed in words, presenting photographs as "documents" for others to read, hence Provoke's "provocative materials for thought" subtitle. The visual style of the photographs in Provoke has been said to be, in Japanese, 'are-bure-boke', translated as 'grainy/rough, blurry, out-of-focus'.
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Work from Provoke Photographers
Takuma Nakahira:
Yutaka Takahashi:
Daido Moriyama:
My work inspired by Provoke
I am very pleased with the outcome of my set of images as I really think they reflect the style of Provoke photographers. The Provoke app that I used on my phone in order to edit the images, meant that it was easier for me to replicate the style as the tool was extremely useful. There were various filters that I could choose from to edit my photographs, all of which were in the style of Provoke. I was amazed with the way my photographs could be transformed into the style of provoke. After transforming my own images into the style of Provoke, it made me really realise that way of working. From then I was really inspired to take more black and white photographs in that style as I think the Provoke style really suits my personality and what sort of photography I enjoy.
This was the original photograph I had taken about 4 years ago of tower bridge at night.
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I then chose that image in the Provoke app and decided that the I800 filter suited the photograph best. The other filters either made the image too light or too dark so I think this filter was best.
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This was the final product. I am very happy with the outcome as I believe that that it really mirrors the Provoke style, especially as it seems very disorientated and blurred which I think reflects Daido Moriyama's work very much.
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