Forgotten Fragments Of Japan's Past: Japan Playback By Zhang Yu
Since the beginning of photography, humans have found a way to preserve moments on film, creating a precious memory of past times for future generations.
Countless black and white photographs store stories and the destiny of people who lived many years before us. These pictures allow us to jump back in time like in a time machine. One of those time capsules is the Instagram account Japan Playback curated by photographer Zhang Yu, who gives us access to a different time in Japan.
Japan Playback collects photographs of post-war Japan, filled with cars, clothing, and styles from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Contrary to the first impression, all of these photos weren't shot by the same camera and photographer, but rather they were collected and arranged by photographer Zhang Yu.
Zhang Yu was born and raised in Heilongjiang province, China but moved to Tokyo in 2013. The trained photographer started the project Japan Playback after discovering an old box of Japanese glass plate negatives on an online auction platform. After developing the unnamed and undated photos, he was so fascinated by the portraits and the social-historical background they showed that he continued collecting them.
Even though the process of developing and selecting which photos to publish involves a significant amount of subjectivity, Yu sees himself more as a curator than a photographer.
“Some of these people might still be alive,” he says. “Sometimes I think that these are my things, since I bought them – and I do think I have a right to publish them – but they’re not mine,”
With his project, he wants to show people a historic and very personal Japan. Through the pictures of peoples' everyday lives, we get a pure and untouched impression of Japan from before the bubble era and its development into a modern, futuristic country.
