Reiwa Era Poetry
“Я могу много всего сказать за пост совиет порн, который все так любят, но стараюсь не поддаваться соблазну и заметить только что главный символ russian gothic это когда очень красивая, хорошо одетая женщина скачет через размытую грязь образовавщуюсь вместо тротуара”
Mike Ivnitsky is a Tel Aviv based photographer, an explorer of beauty in people and collector of intimate moments. Reiwa Era Poetry is a printed book of photographs, a collection of memories from the visual world collided with the written prose, a diary of the presented moments.
Meetings, friendships, relationships, parties, music, apartments - come into one collection which has a thread of characters, each standing behind a certain meeting or occurrence. The printed edition is a puzzle of sentences that deliberately avoids a connection to its photograph. It’s the three past years through the prism of communication and analysis.
A book of over 200 photos in black and white is available in limited edition. DM Mike on his Instagram channel to get your copy.
‘The last years were a huge and desperate attempt to fill a hole left by psychological processes, an outer shape of a fossil where the dead animal has been’
Hi Mike, let’s speak about the book. What is the main theme that serves as an umbrella for the photographs?
Well, hmm, I think the main theme is me wanting to run some kind of a diary, backstage from shoots, personal meetings, parties.The last years were a huge and desperate attempt to fill a hole left by psychological processes, an outer shape of a fossil where the dead animal has been. The material was just accumulating and weighing me down like a rock, and I wanted to "get rid of it", in a way.
The title is поэзия эпохи reiwa (reiwa era poetry). The name is important - the Reiwa period. Every time a Japanese emperor changes, which happened in 2019, the year count starts from zero. This is symbolic to me since 2019 was a very difficult year, which was also one of the reasons I've decided to release the book. I am very affected by the Japanese photography of the late sixties to the eighties (Daido Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Eikoh Hosoe, Masahisa Fukase, to name a few), and the way photo magazines and books were done in Japan in those years. It does sound like "rave", which is an important part of my last 4 years, going to raves, trying to feel unity with the world, which is something that was (and is) lacking in my life.
“Дольче Вита идеальный фильм. Переживаешь, борешься со своим внутренним мещанством, обрезаешь якоря и сжигаешь мосты, а тем временем пошлые дикари легко и естественно вырывают цветы жизни у тебя из рук”
The diary you keep consists of several short lines about certain days written in a poetic mode. The atmosphere that is conveyed is of melancholy that is merged with observation and rigid realism. What are the emotions or visual images that appear when you reread some of those lines? Do they instantly connect to specific remembrances of the day and a photograph you took? What is the hardest memory from the Diary for you?
I very purposefully mixed the dates and tried to disconnect the people in the pictures (a lot of whom are quoted) and the quote, I also didn't write the things in real-time, I tried to do it after I went to bed and woke up, so it has some uncertainty. Does it make sense? I think it's more about the mood and about the bubble we choose to live in, this one is mine, in a very romantic and somewhat hopeless atmosphere.
What are some of the technical aspects one needs to proceed with to publish the book? How did the process work for you?
I chose to print it in a manner that resembles a diary. It's over-saturated in content, has about 200 images, the cover looks like a notebook one would write a diary in.
What was the main reason to decide on the black and white aesthetic for the book?
My personal work has been black and white by about 95% in recent years.
During the time taking photos, attending night parties, you’ve met a lot of people. What was the most touching story you heard?
There was a story about an acquaintance, who killed herself, I got it during dinner with friends, and I felt like I was punched in the stomach, couldn't eat or participate in the conversation. One of them asked what was wrong, and I said that such and such killed herself, and they said, "yeah, we know, tragic", and just kept on with the conversation. Does this qualify as touching?
“Бритоголовая баллерина японка стоит на пуантах под зов муадзина Арабская красавица сверкает отражением стробоскопа со дна расширеных зрачков “Как тебе духи? victorias secret - пахнут водкой и редбулом” В витрине антиквара лежит пластинка под названием melodien zum tanzen und traumen”
A girl doing cocaine in the bathroom recently told me that she has two small children, and her face lit up, and then she told me she regrets having them.
My “touching” is kinda depressing these days I'm afraid.
