Together these three compact discs hold 75 portrait photographs by Japanese photographer and publisher Shoichi Aoki taken between 1977 and 2002 and originally published in his cult street fashion magazine FRUiTS. Shoichi Aoki's photographs document a revolutionary Japanese fashion movement that emerged on the streets of Harajuku, Tokyo in the mid 1990s. Unlike most fashion movements it was led not by designers but by young people, wearing an extreme mix of traditional Japanese dress, handmade and secondhand clothing, and designer fashion.

Born in Tokyo in 1955, Shoichi Aoki worked as a computer programmer in the 1970s before leaving Japan for Europe, determined never to take another company job. In 1985, after returning to Tokyo, Shoichi Aoki and Noriko Kojima started the magazine STREET and in June 1997 Shoichi Aoki established FRUiTS, a monthly magazine to 'report on the cutting edge of youth fashion' in Japan. He named the magazine FRUiTS to reflect the colour and freshness of the movement.

Shoichi Aoki believes that fashion is an important form of communication; he is interested in the ways people express themselves through dress, rather than the individual garments they wear. For most of the FRUiTS photographs, Shoichi Aoki has recorded the subject's name and age, as well as a short description of their outfit, current obsessions and 'point of fashion' or motivations, an approach that gives his portraits a sense of intimacy and involvement.

The majority of the photographs were taken by Shoichi Aoki (b 1955) for Japanese street fashion magazine 'FRUiTS. The compact discs also include photographs taken by Shoji Fujii, Maki Ishii, Nao Yamada and Rika Nakamura for the magazine.

The photographs were taken as a record of street fashion in Tokyo's Harajuku area between 1997 and 2002 and were originally published in photographer Shoichi Aoki's monthly street fashion magazine 'FRUiTS'.

Photographs (75), digital, various photographers, published in 'FRUiTS' magazine, Tokyo, Japan, 1997-2002

Seventy-five digital portrait photographs taken by Japanese photographers Shoichi Aoki, Shoji Fujii, Maki Ishii, Nao Yamada and Rika Nakamura in Tokyo's Harajuku area between 1997 and 2002. The photographs were published in Japanese street fashion magazine 'FRUiTS'.

Photographed: Tokyo, Japan; 1997 - 2002

Published: Tokyo, Japan

2004/24/1

1997 - 2002