PIPPO

Opened as a rental darkroom & gallery by a photographer, Itaru Hirama, in Asakusa, Tokyo in June of 2009.

A variegated project exhibitions and workshops using the rental gallery and the darkroom are regularly held for the aim of leaving the photograph using a film for the next generation in the age of a digital camera, and providing an experience of having an interest in the photograph.

The place of interchange of photograph lovers was a photograph shop before. There was a communication place for them there. However, those photograph shops was not a "Salon"-like place anymore since the photograph art started seeking the speed and cheapness. I wonder whether the photograph was an art to begin with tying the relation between the world and the people. Only it might be a function of the photograph that is not attached so for a digital camera and a digital print. In the downtown of Asakusa, we will see the former photograph shop in PIPPO which is a new kind of photograph salon.