Kyoto ¨C 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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