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Research - Japanese Modern Photography’s Aperture.

The Koga review

The Kôga review, composed of eighteen issues published between May 1932 and December 1933, opened up a relatively global perception of the main trends that gave a rhythm to the modern Japanese photographic scene. This exciting subject allows us to travel from New Photography to journalistic photography and allows us to catch a glimpse of the premise to Avant-garde Photography.


Public orals on the 3rd of December 2011


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Presentation at INHA

"Network and Sociality of the Japanese Photography in the 1930's"

Abstract of the presentation of the 9th of June 2011


Presentations at Waseda University

"The photographer Nakayama Iwata"

Abstract of the presentation of the 10th of January 2008


Nakayama Iwata first studied photography with a traditional approach at the temporary department of photography of the Tokyo Art School from which he graduated in 1919. He learned how to use soft focus and found his inspiration in western paintings such as portraits and landscapes.
After he graduated, his artistic and cultural curiosity led him to California, then New York and finally Paris where he encountered avant-garde.
He returned to Japan in 1928 and buoyed by his experience abroad, he became one of the main personalities of the Kansai photographic scene in the 30’s. He founded the Ashiya Camera Club in 1930 and the Kôga review in 1932. He also won the first prize of commercial photography contest in 1930 and he was selected by the tourism bureau of Kobe in 1939 to make the city’s promotional photography.
His talent was his capacity to liberate himself from Tokyo’s academism and to create his own world that he cleverly used in his artistic photography as well as in his studio work.


Three must read books on Nakayama Iwata :


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"Yanagi Miwa's Elevator Girls"

Abstract of the presentation of the 15th of January 2009


The Elevators Girls series is composed of 26 photographs made between 1994 and 1999. This series concept was born from the installation The white Casket, 1993, which staged two elevator girls sitting down in front of a fake elevator door. The hostesses wearing the same uniform, make-up and hair style, repeating the same gesture all day long illustrates the loss of identity and individuality in their work and daily life. The artist’s total control on the gallery space transformed it into a “white coffin” for these two women frozen inside.
By taking photos of this installation, Yanagi realized photography, an expressive medium in two dimensions, offered her an unlimited control. The space where the hostesses are displayed is even more limited and it forces the viewer to stay outside. Instead of being a “window open on the world”, each photograph is considered a showcase, narrowed to a sterile microcosm. The models, dehumanized, became like mannequins, human-like forms that can be duplicated and frozen forever in a department store space--unreal, depopulated and closed.
This series is the first work Yanagi presented as an artist. I invite you to check her web site (link beside) where you can see the Elevator Girls pictures and her later works, each showing a different facet of women’s role in society.


Three must read books on Yanagi Miwa :


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