YOSHI YUBAI

Exhibition: Feb 2nd-27th, 2019
Opening Reception: Feb 2nd, 6-9pm

“On April 8, 2002, a 21-year-old Japanese male RE/Search fan traveled from Hiroshima, Japan, to San Francisco expressly to meet RE/Search. His name was Yoshi Yubai and already he perceived that something he resonated with—a search for "incredibly strange"—could be enhanced, developed and extended by a personal meeting (and subsequent connection) with RE/Search. He was drawn to the most-"outsider" individuals existing at the boundaries of the official "art world." He developed a friendship with RE/Search photographer Ana Barrado and began learning how to approach photography from her, also studying the entire history of world photography, spotlighting obscure Japanese photographers. While in San Francisco, Yoshi borrowed a mountain bike and began exploring the somewhat-dangerous Tenderloin during the post-midnight hours—he had an eye for anyone who stood out on San Francisco's sidewalks. Like Diane Arbus, Yoshi often seemed to be personally involved with his subjects, judging by the smiles he captured. Key archetypes of San Francisco's citizens who set foot on its sidewalks can be studied in their darkest shadows, captured by the non-judgmental eye of an impartial-yet-somehow-sympathetic outsider traveling through a parallel alien planet.

Yoshi's itinerant "fly-on-the-wall" images have captured the true history of Future-San Francisco-in-the-Making, from Bohemian Paradise to Tech Heaven, unvarnished by governmental-mayoral propaganda or tourist-brochure whitewashing.” [excerpted from Yoshi's Tiny Splendor book introduction by V. Vale]