Something You Need: Jai Tanju’s New Photo Book, ‘Thanks For Stopping By’
Jai Tanju is one of our favorite photographers.
He is captivating and his perspective is unique. Whether he is shooting skating or a gallery or a person holding flowers on the side of the street, the man has a talented eye. He shot me a text telling me about his new book, Thanks For Stopping By, that catalogues images shot of installations, visitors, artists, and happenings at the legendary, now-closed, Seeing Things Gallery, and I was all aflutter. He shot me an email about it, the body of which is pasted below, because I couldn’t say it any sweeter than he.
‘Thanks For Stopping By is a one hundred and twenty-page, black & white, perfect bound book of portraits that I took at the Seeing Things gallery over the five years that we were open. Sadly, I was too busy most of the time to take portraits of all the artists who showed art there or friends who visited, but I got a lot and am very proud of how the book turned out!
My wife, Blanche, wrote the below forward at the end of the book...
In November of 2012, Jai and I opened a small art gallery in downtown San Jose, CA called Seeing Things. We were at that space for three years or so, and then moved above our friend’s store, Black and Brown, for another two years before closing the gallery in August of 2018 — just before our daughter, Bibi, was born. Jai and I loved having a gallery, supporting our artist friends from all over the United States, the world, and especially in our art community here in San Jose.
It truly gave us so much joy!
During those years we did one show per month, sometimes two or three, for a total of about 72. The gallery was open six days a week. Every show brought new people to the gallery — always including random people off the street — as well as our usuals. Jai and Frida were always there to welcome in friends, family, exhibiting artists, and art fans from far and wide. Jai would try to take portraits of most of the people who stopped by, depending how busy we were. It could get so hectic at the gallery that sometimes he wouldn’t be able to.
But he got a lot — and here they are.
I’m pretty sure that if Frida could talk,
at the end of each visit she would have said,
“Thanks for stopping by.” ‘
Get your hands on Thanks For Stopping By just in time for the holidays, here.
