MPB Meets: Street and Documentary Photographer Shin Noguchi

Street and documentary photographer Shin Noguchi has published works including In Color In Japan (2020), and has been featured in books including The Street Photographer's Manual (2014) and 101 Great Street Photographs (2017). After winning first prize at the MAP Toulouse Festival in 2014, Shin Noguchi went on to exhibit work around the world, from Japan to Brazil, Canada, Denmark and the UK.

It's difficult to put your finger on what makes Shin’s work so unique. Combining a mixture of street and documentary—Shin’s photography makes for a complex tableau where often his family features. Many street photographers think about the subject matter as the centrepiece. But, for Shin, the interplay of aesthetic beauty and colour is just as important. We talk to Shin about his beginnings in photography, his equipment and the subtle approach to shooting—and understanding—everyday life.

MPB spoke with Shin Noguchi.

MPB: What’s your background—would you consider yourself a street photographer?

SN: My father gave me an old Fujica film camera when I was a kid, and then I tried to capture every single moment in my life and other people's lives. I really love candid, unposed photographs of people. It’s been around ten years since I came to focus more deeply on the concept of human beings and society, and now people call me a "street photographer" in this society. I prefer to call myself a street/documentary photographer—because, for me, “street” means "life". It doesn't matter whether I’m photographing people or shooting the road, street, outdoors. I just shoot any moments in any place—I want to shoot,  record and capture the "life", our daily life.

MPB: Often, with street and documentary photography, the image’s beauty is secondary to its subject and story. Yet, your images have a lot of beauty—is this important to you?

SN: Yes, It's very important for me. If the viewers feel the kind of beauty in my street photos—that captured the moment of people's daily life—it would also be the moment they realise their everyday life is also surrounded by beautiful sights as well.

MPB: Colour plays an important role in your images. Why colour and not black-and-white?

SN: The reason I started to use cameras with colour film was to record our daily life. Simple, colour film exists—and I live in this colourful world. I don't make “a photo", I just document the life of people. That's it. But if I start with black-and-white film, I tend to always try to make photography that looks like "art". Without saying it's good or bad, I think I’ve just been obsessed with that superficial expression.

MPB: Many of your images combine humour, as well as tragedy and a certain sadness. Is this a reflection of how you feel, or more to do with the subjects you find?

SN: I just listen to the voice of our society. People's lives are full of humanity—sometimes very sad, sometimes in unreasonable situations. The subjects tell me the meaning and value of life. To take a picture is to affirm the existence of people—the existence of human karma—and it's also an opportunity to affirm my own existence and accept it as it is.

MPB: When shooting for a series, do you get to a point where you feel there is a ‘type’ of image missing? How do you know when something is finished?

SN: I don't have any goals for my street projects, except for the reportage project, because our life goes on. Nobody knows when it will come, so I never stop capturing "the life". Just as Rosanjin loved his own pottery, and as Basho loved Haiku poems.

MPB: Is publishing the ultimate goal for you, and for the images you create?

SN: I have been invited to publish my photobook by many publishers so far. But, I was rarely particular about the identity of the material of my photographs and bindings. Japanese publishers place too much priority on making books that can be seen by their originality. When I pick it up, the binding is more conscious than the content of the photo.

MPB: You shoot, almost exclusively, on film. Why is this?

SN: I use a Leica MP for personal work and a digital Leica M9-P Black for assignments. I love the tone of the film’s atmosphere—especially Kodak Portra 400, which I have been using. A digital sensor may be able to record almost all information in the frame, but I want to value "the reason" to click the shutter than "the way" to take a photograph. That's why I just need one or two frames for the moments I met, so it’s unnecessary for me to use digital to click the shutter many times.

Want to create your own street photography? Check out our guide to street photography. Or, read more interviews on the MPB content hub.