Shin Noguchi Is Here, Just for a Moment

Japanese photographer Shin Noguchi captures those little moments in life, those that have the power to make our existence extraordinary and unique. The series Something Here perpetuates the artist’s desire to document these moments, to stop and observe these scenes that make up the world we encounter every day.

Born in Tokyo in 1976, Shin Noguchi works in street photography and collaborates with various newspapers and magazines around the world.

I’m here, just here. You’re here, just here.

As Shin Noguchi explains in the text accompanying his series, people are ‘sometimes lonely, sometimes helping each other, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing. I capture people going about daily life because there are moments that they themselves do not realise are more beautiful and full of human touch than the carefully choreographed movies of Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, and Federico Fellini, or Shakespeare’s plays.’

These photos show men, women, an children, in a moment in life that is rendered unusual by the effect of a shadow, the mischievousness of an action, its tenderness, or the harmony of colours the subjects create with their environment. Although some moments are less cheerful, as everyday life also involves sadder aspects, Shin Noguchi’s photography aims to listen to society and appreciate the value of the lives of which it is composed, to face and accept it.

The artist continues: ‘There is something here, something beautiful, something special. It may last but a moment, but we are always connected to each other.’

Shin Noguchi’s first photo book, In Colour in Japan, is available on his website, and brings together several series of the artist’s work.