Masterpieces of Japanese Pictorial Photography ＠ Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Hi, this is Ken Iseki, the Editor at between the books.
Take a look at below.
Ori Umesaka – Shakuyaku (Paeonia Lactiflora), 1931
Koyo Yasumoto - Sunset Hill (in Germany), 1931
Koroku Okubo – Toyoko-san, 1926
Shotaro Koseki - Village Nostalgia, 1928
Shotaro Koseki - By the Sea, 1931
Jun Watanabe - Winter, 1926
These look like old Japanese paintings, but they are actually photographic arts from the 1920′s and 1930′s.
They don’t look like photos?
They don’t, do they? From the end of Meiji era (1868-1912) towards the beginning of Showa era (1926-1989), it was popular among the amateur photographers to create “photographic art”. For them, “photographic art” was to imitate paintings. To make the photos look more like them, they used pigment printing on top of silver halide printing.
Not only that, to give a slant, they also painted on the printed photos.
I would think if they wanted to go that far, why not become a painter from the first place, but I guess it was against the rule?
These pieces can be seen at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. They are all worth seeing.
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Masterpieces of Japanese Pictorial Photography
March 8 (Tue) – May 8 (Sun)
※All images are from ”Masterpieces of Japanese Pictorial Photography” catalog
