~ THE SIMPLE BEAUTY ~ Kikuyone's stream, another discovery at Flickr! But putting his aesthetics in words is not easy. Nearing the end (i.e. chronologically the beginning) of his almost-1000-images stream, I naturally thought of a short testimonial. You don't browse through a thousand images for no reason. My first tho… Read more

~ THE SIMPLE BEAUTY ~ Kikuyone's stream, another discovery at Flickr! But putting his aesthetics in words is not easy. Nearing the end (i.e. chronologically the beginning) of his almost-1000-images stream, I naturally thought of a short testimonial. You don't browse through a thousand images for no reason. My first thought was: this output is a reflection and sensibility of a culture so far from my European, that I dare not give any judgement. Not even in a descriptive form. Yet, at the second thought: we owe so much to Japan when we make ANY photograph whatsoever, that I felt almost obliged to write at least something; not only because I browsed the hole stream. From the year 2013 on I've been photographing exclusively with the gear made in Japan, and boy you bet the technology finds its mysterious secret ways to finalize and nestle itself in the art! Contrary to this, much of the work of Kikuyone seems to me firmly rooted in the tradition of Japanese painting and drawing from the past. A considerable part of his photostream borders as it were on photographical haiku - and sure, those are the shots that have earned the author most faves. Strange enough, not always and not with some of the best - take for instance the inconspicuous flic.kr/p/rHJ1fa. The titles/captions exhibit the same culture - short but expressive and spirited. Then again I am puzzled by his several works which are TIME LIFE in character and rather akin to the Western photography. East and West - no doubt that we immensely affect each other in the last hundred years or so, thanks to the contacts, the mass culture, information technology and more. The automatically created collection of Kikuyone's most popular photos is an album in his own class. Have a look at www.flickr.com/people/33286... . I have yet to see a more delicate assemblage. Having faved a number of Kikuyone's images, I realize they are all special and different from my other faves. Several went straight into the dedicated galleries I created recently. To sum up: the distinguished, sometimes as simplistic as almost banal in approach, this style is capable of heights which have their own artistic place and which we all obviously admire. Yes, the catching beauty can be very simple!