Eikoh Hosoe (1933- ) is a Japanese photographer who has been highly acclaimed worldwide as a central figure in the postwar Japanese photography world. Since then, he has been active at the forefront of the photographic world for more than 70 years. In addition to producing works as a photographer, Hosoe has also devoted himself to nurturing younger generations as an educator and has led the Japanese photography world with his strong leadership.
In this exhibition, approximately 30 works from four of Hosoe’s representative series from the 1950s to the 1970s will be carefully selected and displayed on rare vintage prints. The first was "Otoko to Onna" (1959-60), in which he expressed his energy for life through the sexuality of men and women; the second was "Roses" (1961-62), in which he created an aesthetic world of life and death using the writer Yukio Mishima as a model; and the third was "Kamaitachi," in which he created a unique world in collaboration with the butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata. (1961-62), in which Hosoe created his own unique world in collaboration with Butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata; and "Embrace" (1969-70), in which he sublimated the bodies of a man and a woman through sophisticated modeling. These masterpieces, created with Hosoe's insatiable curiosity, inquisitiveness, and unfathomable enthusiasm for photographic expression, represent the ultimate form of photographic expression.
Hosoe's work was highly acclaimed in the United States in the 1960s, and he was one of the first to introduce Western photographic culture to Japan. The concept of "original prints," which Hosoe pioneered in Japan, has become commonplace and has laid the foundation for the appreciation of photographic works in Japan. Through Hosoe's own "vintage prints" (original prints made at the same time as the photographs were taken) shown in this exhibition, the hope is that visitors will feel the outpouring of passion that photographer Eikoh Hosoe has put into his photographs.
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