Celebrating 90 Years of Eikoh Hosoe: Feel the Passion!

About the exhibition

A central figure in postwar Japanese photography Eikoh Hosoe (b. 1933) is also one of the Japanese photographers who have enjoyed high acclaim around the world. He was inspired to pursue a career as a photographer in 1951, when he won the grand prize in the student division of the Fuji Photo Contest sponsored by Fuji Photo Film (currently, FUJIFILM). The winning entry was Poddie-chan, a photograph Hosoe took when he was 17. Since then, Hosoe has been continuously active on the frontlines of the world of photography for more than 70 years. He has powered Japanese photography through strong leadership not only as a professional producing work, but also as an educator working tirelessly to train new generations of photographers.

This exhibition presents approximately 30 priceless vintage prints carefully selected from four important series produced between the 1950s and the 1970s. Man and Woman (1959-60) expresses the energy for life through the male and female sexes. In Ordeal by Roses (Barakei) (1961-62), Hosoe constructs an aesthetic world of life and death with the author Yukio Mishima as his model. The unique world created in Kamaitachi (1965-68) is a collaboration with the butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata. In Embrace (1969-70), powerful sculpting transforms the physical bodies of men and women. Each outstanding photograph represents an approach to the human body, an important creative theme for Hosoe. Created by unending passion and an insatiable spirit of curiosity and inquiry into photographic expression, these masterpieces surely represent one of the ultimate forms of photographic expression.

Inspired by the acclaim for his work in North America in the 1960s, Hosoe was one of the first to introduce the culture of Western photography to Japan, which was also part of his major accomplishments. The concept of the original print, which he pioneered in Japan, is now common practice and forms the foundation for the appreciation of photography in Japan. We hope that you will feel the passion Eikoh Hosoe poured into his photographs when you view the display of his own vintage prints, i.e., the original prints produced when the pictures were taken.