The Japan Photo Tierlist
The Japan Photo Tierlist is a mixed media Photo Project by German Photographer Finn Ickler depicting a Tierlist from photos taken in 2023 in Japan on the Mamiya 645, the Canon EOS 30, and the Nikon F50.
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| Author | Finn Ickler | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Japan | |||
| Genre | Tier List | |||
| Mediatype | Webpage | |||
| Photos | 1 | |||
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Background
The Tierlist has become an iconic element of internet culture, offering rankings on everything from TV Shows to vegetables. In this art project, Finn Ickler utilizes this format to depict the photographer’s journey upon receiving their negatives.
Before the advent of high-quality at-home DSLR or flatbed negative scanning workflows, photographers would typically create contact sheets and carefully select the best negatives for printing.
In today’s digital age, scanning all negatives and then choosing which images to keep, share, or feature in social media, print, or their portfolio is a common practice. The Tierlist artwork captures the internal conflict of having to evaluate one’s work based on personal standards and the expectations of the audience.
Work
Finn Ickler categorizes every photograph taken in Japan into one the of the five typical Tierlist tiers: S, A, B, C or D. The distribution of pictures across these tiers follows a normalized pattern, with the majority falling into the B tier.
Images in the D tier typically suffer from issues such as blurriness, over or underexposure, or failed experimental shots. Often times these are not deemed good enough to fully clean up or edit. Conversely, pictures in the S tier have been selected for inclusion in Finn Ickler’s 2024 Japan Calendar or are featured in his print shop for purchase.
Themes
Finn Ickler’s artwork deals with the value of the image in a digital world. Photography has become ubiquitous through smart phones and social media and is even more at risk of becoming devalued in the advent of generative AI. All these changes are intrinsically linked with the internet through social media and internet culture, which the Tierlist is one part of. It’s the human version of technological concepts such as Search Engine Optimization, ranking algorithms and content filters.
Gallery
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| "An S Tier picture" | "An A Tier picture" | "A B Tier Picture" | "A C Tier Picture" | "A D Tier Picture" |