Hiroyuki Ito – Leica Film at NYT

From School to the NYT

Hiroyuki Ito, (Leica film photographer), has been wandering the streets of New York City with his camera for over two decades. It was 1992 when he first moved to New York from Tokyo for school. Nothing to do with photography. In fact, at the time, his real passion was music. But eventually, he succumbed to the calling, and was trained at the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. It was there that influenced the way he still works today, and his continued use of analog cameras.

News to Art

Ito spent most nights covering performing-arts events around New York City for the NYT. However, once his assignment was over, he began his own work, photographing the city streets at night with his film Leica. “New York City at night is a totally different creature than it is during the day.” True.

Many of the venues and performers he did photograph for the Village Voice and NYT are now only a celluoid memory. He caught most of the musicians and fans, (Lou Reed, etc.), at the Bowery Ballroom, CBGB, Carnegie Hall,…and many more venues, from 1992 to 2017. He’s seen it all. And photographed it all. While Ito has made a name for himself at the editorial desks of the NYT, he sometimes laments about his personal work; “I had an illusion if I worked hard, people were going to give me what I wanted to shoot. That never happened, nobody asked me to do what I wanted to do, so I just had to do it by myself. I go out and take pictures every day. Nobody paid or asked me to do it. No divine inspiration struck me,….[not] even once in my life. I am quite boring.”

Ito vacillates between photographers who inspire him. He cites Roy DeCarava and Helen Levitt, both street photography legends, as influences. But he also admires Lee Friedlander and  Daido Moriyama. Certainly street giants. Like most street photographers, Ito relies on the spontaneity that the city affords. “I prefer wandering around without a plan,” he said. “Having a goal ahead of time usually spoils the fun.”

The Fake Tourist

In 2015 he returned for a 5 week visit to Japan. It was really just a vacation visit to his homeland with his wife. But it soon became apparent that it was like he was a foreigner visiting a strange land. And, so,…the project started. And the rare book ‘Japan’. The one thing he was most satisfied by was the feeling of pure joy in his photography when viewed through the eyes of a tourist. Strikingly different from his “assignment” work.

Well,…Hiroyuki Ito is anything but “boring”.  The sheer proliferation of work is certainly a very high mountain to climb. And I don’t know even one photographer who hasn’t questioned themselves at one time or another. Was it all worth it? (Yeah!! 😁) Hiroyuki Ito is still shooting every day.

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