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Photo Zakka: The Japanese Art of Turning Photographs into Gift Objects
Photo Zakka is a new hobby in Japanese culture that consists of turning photos into objects. |
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 Photo Zakka by Ayumi Nakai |
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You really enjoy taking photos and you have a huge collection, but it’s all on your hard-drive and you never so much as look at it... Photo Zakka is a new hobby in Japanese culture that consists of turning photos into objects. That way your best photos will have an added value: they’ll become souvenirs. Plus, it’s just as wonderful to give someone a Photo Zakka you’ve made yourself, as it is to receive one.
Zakka is a Japanese word that may be translated as 'Japanese Craft'. It refers to all those craft objects that help make a home look nicer or simply make day-to-day domestic life more pleasant. However, it’s also a consumer fad. In fact, there are Zakka shops all over the place in Japan. But Zakka is also an attractive, sensitive and delicate product. So, Photo Zakka are simply Zakka objects made using photographs that is, a somewhat more personalized zakka.
This art began to gain recognition in Japan with the arrival of modern photography.
Photography has definitely become part of popular culture and taking photographs is a new trend in entertainment. To give you an idea how popular this has become, there are currently about 5 different magazines specializing in photography and aimed at a non-professional readership. There is even one that’s just for amateurs (interestingly, at the amateur level, there are more women taking photos). These magazines always offer good ideas for taking photos: they explain techniques, what materials are available, where to buy them, etc. There are also books published about Photo Zakka.
The Internet offers thousands of ideas. But, in addition to the many blogs and web pages dedicated to Photo Zakka, the web pages of some multinational companies such as Olympus, Fujifilm also include sections on this topic. On-line shops offer a bunch of different kits that include all the materials you’ll need to create Photo Zakka using T-shirts or original bags...
There are many means and ways to create a Photo Zakka: miniature album, folding screen album, calendar, bottled photos, creating unique cushions and mugs, you can even use photos to decorate an umbrella or make a snow dome!
If you want to learn more about Photo Zakka, there’s a course being offered in Madrid where you can learn this art. Click here for more information (and I’m the teacher!).
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