FUJIFILM Photo Collection Special Exhibition: Part 2
The Crystallization of Photographic Expression and Technique

About the exhibition

The FUJIFILM SQUARE Photo History Museum is pleased to present the second part of the FUJIFILM Photo Collection Special Exhibition featuring a carefully selected group of works from the 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 18 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.

The FUJIFILM Photo Collection consists of a selection of pre-digital photographs taken up to 2001. One of the noted features of the collection is that it contains a broad range of photographs produced using a variety of techniques including albumen prints, which is an early photography technique, as well as gelatin silver prints and chromogenic prints, which were popularized in the twentieth century. Prior to digital photography, photographers had to deal with numerous physical constraints and difficulties such as film sensitivity and size, the number of exposures, and the use of chemical solutions in the development process. Nonetheless, photographic expression and techniques crystallized out of the strong desire and hard work of photographers who wanted to express and preserve their reactions to what they saw and felt. As a result, photographs were produced and preserved as “objects” and as a final form of expression.

This exhibition is the follow-up to Mentors and Protégés: Their Respective Photographic Expression, the well-received FUJIFILM Photo Collection Special Exhibition held in 2021. We have carefully selected about twenty works from the FUJIFILM Photo Collection on the theme of the crystallization of photographic expression and technique. The exhibition attempts to rediscover the appeal of pre-digital photographs as “objects” by paying close attention to the expressive diversity of differences in film sizes, techniques, and production dates of the prints. We hope you will enjoy the FUJIFILM Photo Collection and the immeasurable appeal that emanates with every change of perspective.