Yasuzo Nojima, Iwata Nakayama, Kiyoshi Koishi, Shinzo Fukushima, Shoji Ueda and Nakaji Yasui are names not to be forgotten. In the face of the international political event known as World War 2, the works of many Japanese photographers came to be used as propaganda for the war in this country from 1930 to 1945. In this respect, the aforementioned six photographers were exceptions. Of them, only Shoji Ueda is still active today. His works from the 1930's to 1950's can be found in major museums in Paris and New York.

With the end of both the war and imperialism in 1945, outstanding photojournalism was born out of the new democratic political system. These photojournalists formed groups such as VIVO and PROVOKE. Names like Eikoh Hosoe, Daido Moriyama, Ikko Nakahara and Yutaka Takanashi appear among them.

The method of "grasping the circumstances of the new age from the chaotic aspects"--a feature common to their attitudes toward work has been adopted more recently by Nobuyoshi Akai. In particular, while the expressionism and antiestablishment expressions employed by Moriyama in the 1960's and 1870's show the influence of Robert Frank and William Klein, they are also a point of interest created by Moriyama himself.

Emerging Photographers

It was in 1978 that I established the first photograph gallery in Japan in a corner of central Tokyo. I personally feel closest to the photographers who conspicuously rose to the fore in the 1980's--mainly people such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Toshio Shibata, Kunie Sugiura, Yuriko Takagi, Kenro Izu and Taiji Matsue.

Most of the aforementioned people are continuing with creative activity having first studied their individual field of specialization in colleges in Japan and then going for further learning in art schools in Europe or the United States and/or working more than 20 years at studios.

Hiroshi Sugimoto has now become a world-class photographer. His works as well as those of the other aforementioned photographers carry a "strong self-assertion" acquired in the West in addition to the "extremely pure flat expression" traditionally mastered by outstanding Japanese artists.

Only Taiji Matsue, who belongs to the youngest age group among them, has experience studying overseas. However, the stage for creating his works consists of lands composed just of light like Yemen, Scotland, Iceland, the Canary Islands, South Africa, the Andes, the Pyrenees and Cappadocia. Thus, Matsue's photographs go way beyond national borders.