Transient, Fleeting: The World of Ishimoto Yasuhiro part 8
Lights and Shadows of Chicago The Ishimotos’ wedding anniversary was at the end of last month (October). As they married in 1954, they would have celebrated their golden wedding last year (2004). Matchmakers between the couple were ikebana artist Sofu Teshigawara and architect Kenzo Tange, and their wedding reception was held at the International House of Japan in Tokyo, organized by members of the Japan Design Committee of which Ishimoto was a founding member as well. The collection of private
Transient, Fleeting: The World of Ishimoto Yasuhiro part 7
Children at Halloween The photograph introduced in the previous installment of this series shows a girl playing at a park. The girl is tied to a tree, and to many it obviously looked as if she was being abused. Children are sometimes ruthless and cruel. It probably was some kind of game in which brave boys would free the captured heroine. Children’s games are changing with the times (in different ways depending on the country). Yasuhiro Ishimoto used to play
Shape, Ishimoto Yasuhiro Collection Exhibition
The catalogue of Ishimoto Yasuhiro’s works includes photographs that just simply depict “objects.” Incorporating elements of texture in shapes defined by lines and surfaces, those pictures represent a fascinating part of Ishimoto’s work. One of the earliest products in Ishimoto’s photographing career is the “Shape” series, highlighting from a design point of view the unique textures and characteristic features of “typically Japanese shapes” given to Japanese traditional articles using porcelain, wood and lacquer. In the 1970s and ’80s, a time
Transient, Fleeting: The World of Ishimoto Yasuhiro part 6
Between Two Countries As this year (2005) marked the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, various media had put together special programs reviewing the war. NHK’s “Shin-Nichiyo Bijutsukan” (“Sunday Museum”) did a showcase of internationally renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi’s work. The program shed light on the issue that his plans for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial were rejected for the simple reason that he was American. The cenotaph for the A-bomb victims was eventually made by Kenzo Tange, and
Transient, Fleeting: The World of Ishimoto Yasuhiro part 5
North Avenue Beach One of the Chicagoans’ favorite leisure activities in summer is swimming in the lake. Chicago is located in the inland region and therefore remote from the seashore, so their beach is at Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes. Covering an area of 58,000km2 (about 90 times that of Lake Biwa), Lake Michigan is not only the sixth biggest lake in the world, but it also has beautiful sandy beaches. When standing on the lake’s edge,
Transient, Fleeting: The World of Ishimoto Yasuhiro part 4
Black People’s Quarters in Chicago Every year between June and August, Chicago turns into a stage for a variety of blues and jazz festivals such as the Chicago Blues Festival, the world’s biggest admission-free blues festival that has been attracting hordes of blues fans to the city. The event offers an extensive program of blues performed by musicians ranging from amateurs to professionals, and even though black music styles tend to be associated with the southern states, Chicago has turned
Transient, Fleeting: The World of Ishimoto Yasuhiro part 3
The New Bauhaus The Chicago Institute of Design (aka New Bauhaus) was established in Chicago in 1937. The faculty consisted of a number of leading figures in the realms of modern architecture and photography, such as photographers Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, as well as architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Buckminster Fuller, creator of the Fuller Dome. Ishimoto studied here from 1948 until 1952. In addition to the Photography department, the New Bauhaus had Design, Architecture
Friends and Student Days in Chicago, Ishimoto Yasuhiro Collection Exhibition
Having grown up in his parents’ hometown, after graduating from the local high school Ishimoto Tasuhiro left Japan for the USA, where he enrolled at the Chicago Institute of Design* to study photography. The curriculum based on the educational philosophy of the Bauhaus school began with classes teaching the basics and aesthetics behind creative work, which for Ishimoto meant not only studying the ideas and methods of modern photography, but also cultivating the formative sensibility that would constitute the bedrock
Reconstruction: Diogenes with a Camera V, Ishimoto Yasuhiro Collection Exhibition
Having studied the concept and methodology of modern photography at the New Bauhaus*1 in Chicago after the war, Ishimoto Yasuhiro developed his own austere formative and compositional sensibility backed by the philosophy of Bauhaus style modern design, for which Kochi-raised Ishimoto became one of the most nationally and internationally renowned photographers in Japan. Ishimoto returned to Chicago and lived there again between 1959 and ’61. During these three years, he unveiled new works at exhibitions at The Art Institute of
