Fresh Fruits

260 portraits with associated captions. A short forward by the author Shoichi Aoki explaining the developments of Japanese street fashion since 2001.

Shoichi Aoki (b.1955) is a leading publisher and photographer of street fashion in Japan. He is the editor and sole photographer of the prime popular fashion magazines Street, Fruits and Tune. Fruits magazine originated in 1997 and to this day records and celebrates the vibrancy of Japanese street fashion. It all began when his eye was caught by two girls on a street corner outside his office, doing nothing in particular, in tartan duffle coats. His impulse was to take their picture: the result became Fruits. Aoki's uniqueness is revealed by his sensitive eye for individuality and for the contagious intensity of cult status. His creation of Fruits captured the essence of a surging eruption in street fashion in Harajuku, Tokyo, whilst also fuelling it. He created a new niche: a forum for identity formation, transformation and affirmation in the avant-garde fashion-world of Tokyo. In turn, he has immortalized the bold details of teenage reality, and the bright colours of teenage expression and escapism. Culminating in Fresh Fruits, he exposes with force the energy of self-perception and self-definition: a concept with which anyone can identify. This unprecedented surge is in perpetual re-invention, yet his images attain timeless insight.