FUJIFILM Photo Collection Special Exhibition
Mentors and Protégés: Their Respective Photographic Expression

About the exhibition

The FUJIFILM SQUARE Photo History Museum is pleased to present a carefully selected group of works from the FUJIFILM Photo Collection rearranged for this special exhibition.

Since the FUJIFILM Photo Collection was established in 2014 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of FUJIFILM Corporation, its guiding principle has been to protect photographic culture. Ranging from the late Edo period through the Meiji era to the present day, the collection consists of 101 photographs of historical significance taken by 101 leading Japanese photographers. It is a rare collection that presents the trajectory of the history of Japanese photography and developments in the world of photography. As such it has toured museums and galleries around the country a total of 17 times, giving many people the opportunity to enjoy the photographs. In 2018, the collection was presented with the Art of Moment award for excellence at the 2018 Mécénat Awards sponsored by the Association for Corporate Support of the Arts after a comprehensive assessment of the collection and its presentation as well as the management of the FUJIFILM PHOTO SALON and the Photo History Museum.

Entitled Mentors and Protégés: Their Respective Photographic Expression, this special exhibition of works from the FUJIFILM Photo Collection features photographers who had some professional connection with each other: mentors and their protégés, photographers and their assistants, or teachers and their students. It is an attempt to decipher the photographic expression of each photographer based on a single outstanding work. The exhibition presents 28 works by 28 photographers and introduces overlooked relationships between photographers including Kiyoji Otsuji (1923–2001), who taught photography at the Kuwasawa Design School in the 1960s, and his student Shigeo Gocho (1946–1983), or Bishin Jumonji (1947–) who learned on the job while working as assistant to Kishin Shinoyama (1940–) in the 1960s. Other relationships are not always straightforward mentor-protégé relationships. For example, Kineo Kuwabara (1913–2007), a well-known editor whose masterpieces were discovered by Nobuyoshi Araki (1940–). What lessons did their protégés take away from the photographic expression of the mentors, and where did the search for photographic expression take them? By observing and comparing the works of mentors and protégés, the exhibition alludes to the nature of photographic expression. We hope that you will enjoy the new encounter with the FUJIFILM Photo Collection.

Exhibition overview