Kojima Ichiro (小島一郎): Photographs(写真集成)

In his short lifespan, Ichiro Kojima (Kojima Ichirō, 小島 一郎, 1924-1964) left a legacy to the photographic world with his black-and-white photographs of rural scenes in his homeland of Aomori, on the northern tip of Japan’s main island Honshu. Present in his work are farmers working the autumn fields of the Tsugaru plain from dawn to dusk, and a fisherman raising his boat with all his might while cold winds rage the Shimokita coast – as well as “ordinary” subjects such as a road traversing a snowy field, or garden fronts of farm houses. A deep empathy with the people who live in these cold provincial villages is strongly captured, exposed, and etched onto his photographs using techniques such as dodge, burn, and reduplication. Some of his last works are printed in extremely high contrast, making them look almost like abstract paintings.

小島一郎写真集成

Publisher: INSCRIPT (インスプリクト), Tokyo (2009)

Language: Japanese

ISBN-13: 978-4900997233