Sean - Ushio Shinohara, Tokyo, William Klein

Wow, I can't believe Ushio Shinohara is still alive and still boxing painting! Thanks for the link below Sonya, to the documentary Cutie and the Boxer. I'll watch it asap. The 2 images above are of the "Boxer", Ushio Shinohara, creating his unique boxing calligraphy paintings as a young man in Tokyo in the early 1960s. Complete with a mohawk years before punk. The photos are taken from a book called Tokyo by American photographer William Klein, published in 1964. Now ultra rare and expensive, I managed to buy a reasonably priced copy of this book when I was in New York in 1996. It's one of my most prized photography books. I love it, and look through it at least every few months. The stark and grainy b/w photography of William Klein is stunning, and captures Tokyo/Japan during a vibrant period, with the ultra modern and traditional crashing against each other, and throwing out all sorts of wild avant-garde art, from the grotesque dance of Butoh, to Shinohara's physical calligraphy. Klein's images have a very immediate and candid feel, with many of his photos capturing spontaneous moments in the street. Klein actually released four city themed photography books; New York, (1957 & until recently the only one of the series to be reprinted); Rome (1960); Moscow (1964); Tokyo (1964).

Here's an interesting article by photographer Eric Kim - 10 lessons William Klein has taught me about street photography -

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/03/26/10-lessons-william-klein-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

Klein's book New York is considered the classic, but I think Tokyo is his best. Here's the actual book below. Did I mention, I love this book! And now I can watch Cutie and the Boxer to see what happened to Shinohara.