Diva, Paris

Diva, Paris was taken by Haruhiko Sameshima in 1992. It is a black and white photograph of an advertising poster in a bus shelter that Sameshima encountered while visiting Paris as part of a European trip at the end of 1992 and start of 1993. Sameshima used a Zeiss Super Ikonta camera to take this photograph, which used a two-and-a-quarter square inch negative. The camera, recently purchased by Sameshima, is essentially a 1950s tourist camera. The old technology, which was new to Sameshima, enabled him to take very different kinds of photographs to what his 4 x 5 inch Linhof camera would have. Because the Super Ikonta didn't require a tripod, it enabled Sameshima to document his European experiences just like any other tourist.

Luxurious signs
Diva, Paris is a bus-shelter-advertising poster. The image explores relationships between specific places and global systems of representation and consumption. There is nothing stereotypical about this image. It is not a typical tourist site or image that signifies Paris. Yet the advertisement, which would not be out of place in Auckland, Sameshima's home city, is constructed around generic signs of glamour and luxury that originate in Europe, and cities like Paris, as the home of style and fashion. In this sense, Sameshima's photograph is a kind of investigation of signs, a seemingly straightforward image of the complex identities that result from the flow of signs - like photography and advertising - around the world.

Souvenirs
Diva, Paris, along with Athene, another photograph in Te Papa's collection taken during the same trip to Europe, was exhibited in 1993 in an exhibition called Souvenirs at the Claybrook Gallery in Parnell, Auckland. As the title suggests, the show presented the best of Sameshima's 'tourist snapshots', and marked the beginning of his interest in tourism as a model for his own practice as a photographer.