What is “Provoke”

"Provoke style" photography refers to a radical, avant-garde movement that emerged in Japan in the late 1960s. It is defined by its rejection of traditional "beautiful" photography and objective photojournalism in favour of a raw, subjective, and often chaotic visual language.

The movement gathered steam with the short-lived but highly influential magazine Provoke (published 1968–1969), which featured legendary photographers like Daido Moriyama, Takuma Nakahira, and Yutaka Takanashi.The visual hallmark of the Provoke style is often summarised by the Japanese phrase "粗, ぶれ, ボケ," which translates to “Rough, Blurry, Out of Focus”.

Rather than showing a whole scene, Provoke photographers often focused on small, disconnected fragments of reality—a texture, a shadow, or a passing face.

The movement itself was a reaction against several things:

• Limits of Language

• Rebellion against “Perfect’ art

• Post-war Trauma and Identity