Kohei Yoshiyuki – The Park, 1971-79

As part of the Liverpool Biennial the Open Eye Gallery plays host to photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki series ‘The Park’ which documents the busy nightlife in Tokyo parks in the 1970s. The images are shown in a darkened room where you are given a torch to view each photograph the effect this has is making the context of the pictures become more personal it is as you are a peeping tom looking on the different scenes. The images are explicit in showing different groups and couples engaging in sexual activity and as you are viewing in darkened room by torch it adds tension to the black and white images. They exhibition had a sinister feel which the context of the images show and was exasperated by the setting in which to view. You also feel aware of your role as the spectator because some images show people looking through bushes at people engaging in sexual activity and you in turn are doing the same at them in a voyeuristic examination of their privacy causing a blur in the role of spectator.