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Dec 14 2016 12 Comments

Japan: (Don’t) kill yourself

japan don't kill yourself

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. john says

    12/14/2016 at 9:28 am

    (not) Zen!
    ..but that hat is a real head turner.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      12/14/2016 at 11:10 am

      Yeah, not Zen at all…

      My hope was to get someone staring at the sign, but yes, he’s quite likely checking out the fella’s hat instead!

      Reply
      • john says

        12/14/2016 at 7:57 pm

        I was particularly struck that it said ‘Kill your self’ (ego) not ‘Kill yourself’, and in English, and in capitals!

        Reply
        • Lee says

          12/14/2016 at 10:05 pm

          Likewise. Very unusual, and very striking. Who knows whether that was intentional or not, but either way it doesn’t diminish the impact.

          Reply
  2. Coli says

    12/14/2016 at 10:06 am

    Wow. Was that original message aimed at Abe with his picture there? None the less this picture is really artistic in many ways. Very cool shot. I’d like to see this in a exhibition.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      12/14/2016 at 11:14 am

      I honestly don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. Possibly, but there again, those Abe stickers are all over the place, so could be just a coincidence.

      Cheers! That’s very nice to hear. Got to say I’m very pleased the way it came out. Generally I’m not very good at hanging about waiting for a shot. Don’t have the necessary patience. But this time I really wanted some people in the frame to hopefully add an extra dimension. And these two definitely contribute to it.

      Reply
      • john says

        12/14/2016 at 11:22 am

        There may be updates…
        but not when there’s someone hanging about with a camera :O)

        Reply
        • Lee says

          12/14/2016 at 3:58 pm

          I shall give them a bit of time to do so before I return!

          Reply
  3. Denton says

    12/14/2016 at 5:09 pm

    Very, very cool shot! Really interesting. Nice work getting the two guys in the frame too!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      12/14/2016 at 7:33 pm

      Thank you. Had to wait a while to get someone interesting in the frame, but it was worth it — I think!

      Reply
  4. cdilla says

    12/15/2016 at 5:55 pm

    I half imagine you sat in a hide waiting for the perfect show 🙂 Definitely worth the wait. The beret topped dude has some impressive furrows on his brow, and I’m suprised the rubbernecking guy glasses didn’t fly off.
    The message itself reminds me of a talk I attended by Alan Garner many years ago about how he writes novels. He spoke of the many inspirations for his book, “Red Shift”, but what I remember most was that the trigger that started him writing it was when he saw, on a wall at a train station, a piece of modified graffiti where beneath the names of two lovers was written “not really now not any more”.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      12/15/2016 at 8:19 pm

      Haha, maybe that’s an approach I need to take!

      Cheers. I was determined to get something, so good to hear it works.

      Interesting. Amazing what a difference a small addition can make, isn’t it? Whether that was the case here or not I don’t know. It may all have been written by the same hand. But either way, it’s quite striking.

      Reply

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