In staid and overstuffed Kyoto, every year documentarians come bearing news from beyond the old Japanese capital. This year, despite a grim global outlook, they’ve brought mostly cheerful tidings.
Kyotographie, the annual month-long international photography festival now in its 13th edition, opened April 12 under the theme “Humanity.” Artists from Japan, the U.K., Cote d’Ivoire, Taiwan, Mexico and India, among others, interpreted the brief with a surprising amount of humor and lightness, perhaps as a response to what has seemed like an endless march of darkness over the past few years.
Celebrated 73-year-old British photographer Martin Parr brought his satirical eye to sakura (cherry blossom) season in Kyoto, arriving the weekend before the festival opened to document the peak. “There’s a sort of fever that crosses the city when cherry blossoms are at their best,” he says.
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