HAMAYA, Hiroshi

About the Japanese Magnum photographer Hiroshi HAMAYA (1915-1999)

Hirsohi HAMAYA began taking photographs at the age of fifteen and then studied under Yoshio WATANABE (渡辺 義雄; 1907-2000). In 1937, he began working as a freelance photojournalist. In 1939, he met the ethnologist Shibusawa Keizō, who awakened his interest in the daily life and festive customs of the people of the remote Niigata prefecture. In 1940 and 1942, he traveled to Manchuria and China; both countries were occupied by Japan at the time. After the war, he again traveled to northern Japan and Niigata Prefecture. It was there that he created his well-known photo series 'Village in the Snow'. In 1950, he also began to capture life in the big cities in photo reports, although he continued to focus on Japanese rural life. Another important series, which was awarded the Mainichi Culture Prize in 1958, is 'Ura Nihon' (裏日本) - the 'back side of Japan', i.e. the less developed side of Japan facing the Sea of Japan - from 1957. He was the first Asian photographer to become a member of the Magnum Photos agency in 1960. In the 1960s and 1970s, he traveled all over the world for various photo projects. Hiroshi HAMAYA died on March 6, 1999 in his home city of Tokyo.

Photo books by and with works by Magnum photographer Hirshi HAMAYA

• 'Snow Land' (1956); 'The Concerned Photographer 2' (1972, zusammen mit Arbeiten von Marc RIBOUD, Roman VISHNIAC, Bruce DAVIDSON, Gordon PARKS, Ernst HAAS, Donald McCULLIN, W. Eugene SMITH); 'Landscapes' (1982); 'Die Präfektur Shiga' (1984); 'Zeitblende: Fünf Jahrzehnte Magnum-Photographie' (1989); 'Weltstars der Photographie. Die Preisträger der Hasselblad Foundation' (2008); 'Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s' (2009, by Ryuichi Kaneko and Ivan Vartanian); 'Hasselblad Award 1980-2010' (2010); 'Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto' (2013); 'The Japanese Photobook, 1912–1980' (2017, by Manfred Heiting and Ryuichi KANEKO); 'Hasselblad Award. Celebrating Photography' (2020); 
  

read more