Fresh Fruits
In 1997, Aoki, a Japanese photographer who specialized in capturing street fashion in Paris, London, and New York, turned his eye to Tokyo's Harajuku district. There young people swarmed the streets in a playful riot of candy-colored, eye-catching ensembles, creatively blending hand-modified designer-label items with T-shirts and thrift-shop finds. Fruits, the magazine Aoki founded to feature his Harajuku photographs, went on to acquire an international following. A previous volume of Fruits pictures appeared in 2001, and in this follow-up the eclecticism seems inexhaustible. The portrait subjects, asked to explain their outfits, are drolly laconic ("boring feeling," "like Snow White"). And though recognizable types-punks, hip-hop kids, jocks-regularly appear, the over-all effect is less that of a tribal identity than of a super-cute costume party.Copyright © 2005The New Yorker