Photographing Japan

Ihei Kimura was born around the turn of the nineteenth century in Tokyo Japan. When in the third grade he bought his first camera (Hammond 1) and from that point on was busy photographing the Showa era of Japan. He photographed the people of Japan and through them was able to capture Japanese culture on film. After studying photography in Taiwan he returned to Japan and established his own studio based out of Tokyo. In 1936 when Kimura visited the Akita region of Japan he photographed the people and claimed that the area was the “epitome of the reality” they lived in. He even photographed for Japan’s war propaganda during world war two. Kimura’s photography represents Japanese culture both showing the people and what is happening at the moment. The pictures that I was able to find left me wanting more, from them I feel that Japan at the time he was photographing Japan can very easily be found and through the pictures you can feel like what it was like.

http://photojpn.org/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=103

http://www.artnet.com/library/04/0466/T046614.asp

http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/555/art.asp

http://www.kahitsukan.or.jp/ihe_e.html