I like these photos! Not the kind of stuff I would frame and hang on my walls, but from a purely artistic standpoint, I think they are fantastic. The colors, composition and creativity are great. I like the fact that the Japanese are generally a lot more “mature” / less “prudish” (for lack of better terms) than Westerners when it comes to nudity.

A warning for anyone thinking these are the extents to which Amano’s works go and want to look up more of his work, and who thinks Michael’s warnings are over cautious; there are places that fish are not meant to go that Amano likes to put them ;-p

Some of the stories from Amano’s shoots are hilarious, horrifying and gross. He does just seem to be trying to gross people out… and yet he has such an artistic touch that he cannot help but create powerful, beautiful images. Well, most of the time… three girls, six eels, three hours was just a step too far.

He says he likes to catch real emotion in his pictures. So if he wants a girl to look bored he’ll find a way to bore her. If he wants her to look surprised he’ll dump a bucket of squid on her. His techniques may be controversial but they work. He DOES capture real emotions and I think this is what helps to keep his work from falling squarely into the freakish, fetish porn slot.

His pictures aren’t just “pretty girl + prop” and they don’t just create sexual feelings. Any one with a pretty girl, a prop and a camera can make pornographic images, but Amano elicits more from his viewers, whether on purpose or not. What those emotions are relies on the viewers own feelings, but they are very, very rarely complete revulsion and are often mixed with intrigue and then, what I can only describe as “why am I not looking away?”

Also, he insists that all animals used in his work are consumed by the crew after filming, so their deaths don’t go to waste. Can’t help but like him for that XD

Bad idea to ignore your warnings and read this post after dinner, haha.

Artistic, yes.
But because this makes my stomach sick, for me this is so wrong.

I’m a female and I don’t mind the erotica part, but why he have to make it so… Scary? Horrifying? Disgusting? I couldn’t seem to find a right word. I could see how he give those art touches through colors, composition, emotion, etc, but this is definitely not a kind of ‘art’ I would normally accept.

Also I’m glad I could refrain myself from opening his genki-genki site… I hope he could ensure the best hygiene aftercare for his models.

I don’t think I could handle having cockroaches that close to my sexual organs. Even (especially?) dead ones — I assume they’re dead, anyway; how else could he arrange them so precisely? Ugh. I’m gonna go buy some cloth for a class now.

“Why am I not looking away?” This is exactly what I thought when I looked at Amano’s photos. I find most insects repulsive and I’m so scared of some of them that I can’t even look at pictures of them without feeling disgusted and/or “haunted” (I can’t find a better word to describe the sensation of having those things all over me or dangerously close to me). But when I looked at those photographs, surprisingly I didn’t feel anything of the sort: instead, I was fascinated and intrigued. If Amano can make me look at this kind of photos for more than half a second without feeling sick, it means that he’s a real artist! Thanks for this appealing post, another good piece in a very interesting blog (I’ve been following it for a while, but I never commented before…keep up the good work!) =)

おはよう、Gakuranman. I’ve just recently discovered your blog and I am enjoying it muchly.

I don’t have much to add really; I find this kind of art, even though only for the sake of grossing out and provoking, interesting and necessary. I don’t know about Japan as I am not there but Europe seems to be going in a neo Victorian direction. I don’t know if you’re up to date on what happens in the UK, but some weeks ago an exhibition of female croquis were taken down due to it’s “repulsive nature”. croquis??? Christ on a bike, what have we come to?

a Swedish translator of Japanese in possession of Japanese pedophile manga (I do not know the term for this genre of manga… ?) has been arrested which has led to a discussion all over Scandinavia – I am situated in Copenhagen mysef – of whether this type of product should be made illegal. I am shaking my head… thoughts/fantasies/art illegal and persecuteable?

I am by no means suggesting that everyone and his mother should have this kind of explicit art smacked in their faces but there has to be room for it, and I am glad that there are people like Daikichi Amano who are not afraid to explore it

I thought the function of porn was to help people masturbate. In that respect, if he was claiming to do porn and not art, this is an epic fail.

On the other hand, they are powerful images, carefully assembled, with great attention to detail, and intentionally eliciting an emotional response from both the models and the viewers.

Still, when all is said and done, I can’t help but feel a bit bored. Obviously, there are tons of people exploring the emotion of fear, just like this guy. And not just now, but also in the past. From Marquis de Sade to Takashi Miike, ending at the most recent Gus Van Sant movie, Antichrist.

In the end, fear is an illusion created by our brains. I guess for these people, facing and exploring their fears is the best way to find resolve in their lives, to conquer tragedy, to spiritually evolve, and see beyond the obvious. To accept oneself, with all their virtues and faults. But after a while of doing this, what is the point? Either you move on, or it becomes just another fetish from which people cannot let go. Like the 2 packs of cigarettes that one smokes everyday. Instead of liberating our minds, it becomes just another niche market/subculture, a way to make money and get your monthly paycheck.

I am currently doing historical research about the 16th century in Japan. Without getting into too much detail, in order to get the information I need, most of the stuff I have to read involves horrible depictions of people being tortured, killed, mutilated, robbed, betrayed, lied to, corrupted, raped,placed into slavery and many other inhumane things done to Japanese Christians, and some foreigners who were there as well. Many of people were killed on the streets outside the cities for no other reason than to try the new katana that had just been purchased. At the beginning, I did get one night of nightmares, but since then I have coped with it pretty well. Still, sometimes it gets heavy on the brain. On just one afternoon, I believe I had read in detail about the killing of 200 people or more.

And due to this, there is very little that can shock me anymore. I was only slightly disgusted by the insects and animals on display. the human models themselves barely caused me any impression. But there was still an impression, nevertheless. Which means I have not yet completely become a soulless and insensitive create.

In the end, shock plays an important role in our lives. And these images are fully deserving of the word “art”. But in the end of the day, after having had my brief moment of shock, I will go back to enjoying my lovely sunset photography, on a peaceful sea. Both shock and peace are necessary, but peace is more necessary to me than shock. Maybe it is because I have seen enough “shock” to last a lifetime. While I think these images are good, I feel no interest in revisiting them. It’s as if the idea, after having expressed itself, becomes exhausted of meaning. It is good that things like these exist, even if most people will never “get” them.

In conclusion, this was an interesting post.