Founded in 1891, J.M. WESTON is a French shoe brand beloved worldwide for its timeless, elegant designs. The J.M. Weston Aoyama store is now hosting an exhibition by photographer and filmmaker Ryosuke Toyama. The exhibition runs until Sunday, March 21, 2021.

J.M. WESTON is a French luxury men's shoe brand.

Since January 2018, Olivier Saillard has served as J.M. Weston's Artistic Image & Culture Director, overseeing the brand's collections and image.

The brand actively collaborates within the realm of art, expressing its worldview through concepts inspired by museums and galleries.

The J.M. Weston Aoyama store is now hosting an exhibition by photographer and filmmaker Ryosuke Toyama.

J.M. Weston, which has continuously breathed new life into shoes through skilled craftsmanship and beautiful design, and Toyama, who has honored traditional crafts and documented the stories of artisans through photographic techniques. Their spirits resonate, leading to this collaboration.

Based in Kyoto, Toyama creates works using his own unique methods, including self-made cameras and old photographic techniques, focusing on portraits of artisans who carry on traditional crafts.

This exhibition features two series of works: one captured using ambrotype photography and another using a camera obscura.

Ambrotype photography involves coating a glass plate with chemicals, sensitizing it in a silver nitrate solution, and developing it so that the exposed silver appears grayish-white on the glass. For this exhibition, well-worn shoes, showcasing beautiful changes over time, serve as the subjects.

The other series captures the scenery of people passing by outside the J.M. Weston Aoyama store, as seen from within the store, using a camera obscura – a device that projects an image based on the principles of photography.

Ryosuke Toyama
Born in 1980 into a family of Tokyo hand-painted yuzen dyers. After graduating from Chuo University, he worked at the video production company Taiyo Kikaku before joining Daikanyama Studio. After leaving, he worked as a freelance assistant and participated in NGO activities. He began his photography career simultaneously, photographing portraits of artisans across Japan who were inheriting traditional crafts. His interest in "monozukuri" (craftsmanship), his own roots, grew stronger. To apply this spirit of creation from scratch to his photography, he began producing works incorporating early photographic techniques. He has now relocated from Tokyo to a mountainous area in Kyoto, where he is researching changes in his own values while experiencing life in Japan from an era when people lived in harmony with nature.