Fresh Fruits

Shoichi Aoki (b.1955) is a leading publisher and photographer of street fashion in Japan. He is the editor and sole photographer of the prime popular fashion magazines Street, Fruits and Tune . Fruits magazine originated in 1997 and to this day records and celebrates the vibrancy of Japanese street fashion. It all began when his eye was caught by two girls on a street corner outside his office, doing nothing in particular, in tartan duffle coats. His impulse was to take their picture: the result became Fruits . Aoki's uniqueness is revealed by his sensitive eye for individuality and for the contagious intensity of cult status. His creation of Fruits captured the essence of a surging eruption in street fashion in Harajuku, Tokyo, whilst also fuelling it. He created a new niche: a forum for identity formation, transformation and affirmation in the avant-garde fashion-world of Tokyo. In turn, he has immortalized the bold details of teenage reality, and the bright colours of teenage expression and escapism. Culminating in Fresh Fruits , he exposes with force the energy of self-perception and self-definition: a concept with which anyone can identify. This unprecedented surge is in perpetual re-invention, yet his images attain timeless insight.