NOJIMA, Yasuzo

About the Japanese photographer, Yasuzō NOJIMA (野島 康三, 1889-1964)

Yasuzō NOJIMA, born in Urawa (Saitama Prefecture), is one of the most important figures in the history of modern Japanese photography. His work ranges from the pictorialism of the 1920s to the modern photography with Bauhaus influences of the following decade and a deliberately abstract view of reality in the years of the Second World War. Above all, he is a great interpreter of light, of the infinite nuances that cut and shadow create on the faces and skin of the people he portrays.
He began taking photographs at the age of seventeen. In 1909, he joined the Tokyo Photo Research Association (東京写真研究会), a leading amateur photography group, while studying at the Department of Finance at Keiō University. After dropping out of university for health reasons, he founded the 'Yonnin-kai' (四人会) in 1912 together with members of the Photo Research Association, which conducted its own research into photography. In 1915, he founded the 'Mikasa Photo Studio' (三笠写真館), which he moved to another part of the city in 1920 under the name 'Nonomiya Photo Studio' (野々宮写真館). In 1919, he opened the 'Kabutoya Gallery' (兜屋画廊) in the Jimbochō district and organized solo exhibitions of up-and-coming painters. In the 1930s, he abandoned the painting-oriented printing technique and switched to gelatin silver print production. Parallel to this change in expression, in 1952 he launched the specially financed photo magazine 'Kōga/Lichtbild' (光画). Photographers Iwata NAKAYAMA and Ihei KIMURA took part. Photo critic Ina Nobuo was also involved from the second issue onwards. They created an important magazine that published the works of photographers in Tokyo and Kansai who were working on various experimental works at the time. It also included articles introducing the trends of new forms of photographic expression abroad. The magazine was discontinued in 1933, but it is still considered one of the highest quality photography magazines in history. After the magazine was discontinued, he retired as a photographer and taught at Keiō University, younger generations at the 'Camera Club' and the 'Ladies' Camera Club' founded in 1937." (slightly modified text, © Wikipedia, retrieved on 26.02.2024)

Photo books by and with works by Yakuzo NOJIMA

• 'Posthumous Works' (1965); 'Yasuzo Nojima and Contemporaries' (1992); 'Koga kessakushu / Masterpieces of Japanese Photography' (2005); 'Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s' (2009, by Ryuichi Kaneko and Ivan Vartanian); 'Yasuzo Nojima' (2011);