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1975 was a decisive year in the lifeof Takashi Namiki, the animation producer, historian and the chairman ofAnido (read his profile here). Kihachirō Kawamoto invited Namikito go to the Annecy International Animated Film Festival with him. It was notonly his first trip abroad, but also the first time attending such a largefestival dedicated to animation. He’dattended and organized animation screenings before, but this one week at Annecy“was like a dream.” To have so manypeople gathered together who shared his enthusiasm for the art of animationcaused him to feel strangely elated.
At the time “manga eiga,” asanimation was then known, was not held in such high esteem in Japan. Before going to Annecy, Namiki felt that hewas the only one who truly understood animation as an art. This notion wasshattered completely at Annecy. To learnthat there were so many people interested in animation as an art and todiscover so many wonderful animated works at Annecy was an inspiration toNamiki.
In 2000, Namiki published aphotographic chronicle of his friendship with the “animated people” of theworld called Animated People in Photo. It documents the faces of animators, directors, historians, producers,and the organizers of animation festivals that Namiki met during the 25 yearssince that first festival in Annecy.
At Annecy 1975, Namiki could notspeak the language and he didn’t know anybody yet, so he wandered around andtook photographs. The photograph that heis most proud of is of the great pinscreen animation pioneer AlexandreAlexeieff (1901-1982), who had shot to fame in 1931 with the film he made withhis wife Claire Parker Night on Bald Mountain (Une nuit sur le mont Chauve). The photograph opens the collection and isindeed one of the best photographs that Namiki shares with us in thisbook. Other favourites of mine include ashot of Kawamoto chatting with legendary stop motion animator Karel Zeman at Annecy 1987, Barry Purves withchopsticks in Tokyo in 1995, Břetislav Pojar at Hiroshima 1985, a young Hayao Miyazaki in some kind of a truck or van outsideShin-Akitsu Station in 1979, anime pioneer Kenzō Masaoka in his home (Tokyo,1978), Les Drew at NFB Studios (Montréal, 1990), stop motion animation pioneerTadahito Mochinaga at Hiroshima 1998, Ward Kimball doing an impression ofCharlie Chaplin while holding a figurine of Chaplin (LA, 1991), legendaryChinese animator Te Wei (Tokyo, 1981), Yasuji Mori in front of his home (Tokyo, 1992), and YasuoOtsuka in a Parisian antique shop (1999). The photograph of the author himself at Annecy 1975 was taken byKawamoto and is also one of the best photographs of the bunch.
Animated People can be orderedonline from Anido. The photos are notprinted on glossy paper, but still look reasonably good. This is a must-have collection for the animation aficionado – though it’s hard to beat Namiki as acollector: his private archive boasts over 5,000 films and many relics of earlyanimation. The afterword by Namiki is only in Japanese, as are the profiles of the people photographed, but the photographs are all labelled in English.
Here is a complete list of the peopleincluded in the book by country:
Belgium: Raoul Servais (b. 1928),Véronique Steeno (b. 1950)
Brazil: Marcos Magalhães(b.1958)
Canada: Frédéric Back (b. Germany,1924), Ishu Patel (b. India, 1942), Jacques Drouin (b. 1943), Les Drew, WendyTilby (1960)
China: YanDing Xian (b. 1936), Shuchen Wang (1931–1991), Te Wei (1915-2010)
Croatia: Joško Marušić (b. 1952)
Czech Republic: Břetislav Pojar (b. 1923), JanŠvankmajer (b. 1934), Jiří Barta (b. 1948), Karel Zeman (1910-89), MichaelaPavlátová (b. 1961), Pavel Procházka, Pavel Koutský (b. 1957), VlastaPospíšilová
England: Barry Purves, Bob Godfrey(b. 1921), Brothers Quay (b. 1947), John Halas (b. Hungary, 1912-95), MarkBaker (b. 1959), Nick Park (b. 1958)
Estonia: Borivoj Dovniković (b.1930), Priit Pärn (b. 1946)
France: Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-82), BernardPalacios (b. 1947), Jean-Luc Xiberras (b. ? - 1998), Jean-FrançoisLaguionie (b. 1939), Michel Ocelot (b. 1967), Nicole Salomon, Paul Grimault(1905-94)
Germany: Bärbel Neubauer (b. Austria), MarecFritzinger
Holland: Paul Driessen (b. 1940)
Hungary: Csaba Varga (b. 1945), Edit Bleier, EvaM. Tóth, Ferenc Mikulás (b. 1940), Gizella Neuberger (b. 1953), József Gémes(b. 1939), Mária Horváth, Péter Szoboszlay, Szilágyi Varga Zoltán (b. 1951)
Israel: Edward Herscovitz (b. Egypt, 1921-2006)
Italy: Bruno Bozzetto (b. 1938), GiannalbertoBendazzi
Japan: Fusako Yusaki (b. 1937, worksin Italy), Hayao Miyazaki (b.1941), Isao Takahata (b. 1935), Kazuko Komatsubara(1943-2000), Takamura Mukuo (1938-92), Osamu Tezuka (1928), Kihachiro Kawamoto (1925-2010), Yoji Kuri (b. 1928), Yoichi Kotabe (b. 1936),Yasuo Otsuka (b. 1931), Tadanari Okamoto (1932-1990), Yasuji Mori (1925-92), NorioHikone (b. 1936), Taku Furukawa (b. 1941), Syo Yoshimura, Ryotaro Kuwata, Goro Sugimoto (1924-87), TadahitoMochinaga (1919-99), Shinichi Suzuki (b. 1933), Seiichi Hayashi (b. 1945), KazuhideTomonaga (b. 1952), Yoshinori Kanada (1952-2009), Kenzo Masaoka (1898-1988), MasaoKumagawa (1916-2008)
New Zealand: Bob Stenhouse
Poland: Aleksandra Korejwo
Russia: Aleksandr Petrov (b. 1957),Fyodor Khitruk (b. 1917), Garri Bardin (b. 1941), Igor Kovalyov (b. 1963,working in the USA), Yuri Norstein (b. 1941)
Switzerland: Bruno Edera, Georges Schwizgebel (b. 1944)
USA: Bob Kurtz, Caroline Leaf (b. 1946), CharlesSolomon, Chuck Jones (1912-2002), Frank Thomas (1912-2004), Jimmy Murakami (b.1933), Joan C. Gratz, Marc Davis (1913-2000), Myron Waldman (1908-2006), RayHarryhausen (b. 1920), Renya Onasick, Ward Kimball (1914-2002), Will Vinton (b.1947)
Author & Editor : Takashi Namiki
All Photo by Takashi Namiki
Illustration : Masahiro Katayama
First Edition : June 2000
size: A5 (H210×W148mm) 112P/Hardcover
94 photos are all monochrome
