Yuni Yoshida
Born October 2nd, 1980
Personal Background
Born October 2nd, 1980 in Tokyo, Japan Yuni Yoshida is the Picasso of the Photography World! Graduating Joshibi University of Art and Design Yuni Yoshida then joined Onuki Design. After that in 2006 Yoshida joined Uchu County as a Art Director and the following year became a Freelancer. She has been working in multiple jobs in the Photography Industry including advertising, product design, CD jacket design, and book design. Her work has been featured in multiple magazines ever since.
Style
As I said in the last paragraph, her photography feels a lot like Picasso's Art. It is very abstract and interesting to look at. The greatest thing I think she does with her style is make you actually think what the heck is even happening in the picture and more importantly what is happening in the photographers mind. her style really mixes reality with fantasy really well to the point were you have no clue whether your looking at a real world thing or a thing that is out of this world. I think this Photographers way of Editing makes you really think, what kind of dreams does Yoshida have, and ARE they dreams or are they nightmares?
Philosophy
I feel like the artist was particularly inclined to make many objects, shapes, and people form into many bigger shapes to try and recreate a picture. An example of this is when she does the Disney inspired pieces where she takes a bunch of different things that do not necessarily relate to the art and make them seem like a whole new different thing like black hair clips forming into a Mickey Mouse. The picture above also shows how well she does this, she makes a lot of books have binding prints of just one woman's face. Its like a complicated Puzzle kinda.
Influences
In a interview, Yuni Yoshida has said that she has been greatly inspired by Optical Illusions. She was greatly entranced by them, saying that it showed how easy it was to turn real life materials into Fantasy which is a interesting take. It is kinda like writing a book but instead of telling the story through a bunch of words, your telling the story through a bunch of objects/people. The picture up here shows two men using their body as shapes for flower vases, creating the illusion that the vases actually hold flowers when in reality they just have the flowers in their t-shirts. This is a great example of the optical illusions Yoshida has wanted to make.
Compare and Contrast
All three of the pictures I will be recreating today will be of Yuni Yoshida's work on Album Covers. Surprisingly (Not) I know every single one of these Albums and I listen to both of these Artist. That is the main reason why I picked out these covers because they hold somewhat of value to me. This first one is called Pop Virus, I believe being the cover to Hoshino Gen's most popular album. My favorite song from this album is none other than Koi, the song that makes this album famous. My recreation is named Rot Virus. The difference to my piece and her piece is that Pop Virus is very colorful while being messy, and mine is overly colorful with a rotten apple.
This second one is called Radish Gatherer and is the recreation of Hadaka no Yusha. Hadaka No Yusha means "Nakked Hero" in Japanese, which sounds a little bit weird but would make sense if you knew the context of the main song on the Album. The strawberry I took a picture of was supposed to have a carving of a Radish instead of a Sword like Hadaka no Yusha to represent peasantry. The main song on the album is actually the opening song of an Japanese Show called Osamu Rankings (King Rankings in English's) which takes place in, you guessed it, medieval times. The sword is supposed to represent the theme of that show. Mine however is the complete opposite of a king or a powerful knight, having the Radish mean a lowly peasant or farmer on the outskirts of the Kingdom.
The final one is Grey Rapper a recreation of Yellow Dancer. Yellow Dancer is another album of Hoshino Gen. My favorite song from Hoshino Gens, Yellow Dancer Album, is Tokiyo because it is quite catchy. I have no idea why this album is called yellow dancer and I refuse to look it up because I want it to stay that way for me. I find the things I don't know to be really interesting because I can then make theories on what it might actually mean, that is much more fun then just looking it up and getting your answer right away. I do have a theory on what is going on in this picture. The plates, jacket, hanger, cat, kitchen appliances, and etc all represent normal day to day activities. All these day to day activities all form to shape a person outline. Where am I going with this? Well in the album there are a lot of songs that are named different titles and all of those titles relate to things that would show up in a normal life. For example one of them is named Week End which is normal part of your life that happens don't you agree? That is just my thoughts on the album cover's meaning.
Personal Artist Statement
I feel like all of the recreations that I did where just cheap copies of the real thing. because I, unlike Yoshida, did NOT have enough budget for this. But I'm glad I was able to put a meaning into all of my pieces just how Yuni Yoshida put some kind of meaning into hers. All of these might have been easier for other people to recreate, but definitely not me! I took a lot of time and effort into articulating these pieces and what each of them was gonna convey. I hope that you liked them and that others can look at my portfolio when I finally graduate this school and be inspired by my work that I have done today, thank you.
Sources
https://www.plastikmagazine.com/interview/yuni-yoshida
https://rakutenfashionweektokyo.com/en/topics/interview/yuniyoshida/
https://www.uniqlo.com/jp/en/contents/feature/ut-magazine/s83/
https://photosky2022.weebly.com/final-report.html (hey you probably know this one!)
https://rakutenfashionweektokyo.com/en/topics/interview/yuniyoshida/
https://www.uniqlo.com/jp/en/contents/feature/ut-magazine/s83/
https://photosky2022.weebly.com/final-report.html (hey you probably know this one!)
Picture Sources
http://www.yuni-yoshida.com/