Photography Exhibition: The Getty Museum - Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has one of the great photographic collections in the world. The exhibition, Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto is one of the Getty’s most interesting in some time.

This exhibition will run through August 25, 2013.


This exhibition presents the work of two 20th-century photographers, Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto, who represent important but alternate paths in Japanese photography.

Throughout his career Hiroshi Hamaya pursued objective documentation, while Kansuke Yamamoto favored avant-garde forms of expression. These photographers embody two sides of modern Japanese life: the traditional and the forward looking, the rural and the urban, the Eastern and the Western.

Both artists grew up during the brief Taishō era (1912–1926), a period of industrialization and experimentation that ushered in the modern Shōwa era (1926–1989). It was during this time, between the international Depression and World War II, that Hamaya began to document regional traditions and social issues, primarily on the country's rugged "back coast" along the Sea of Japan. In contrast, Yamamoto found inspiration in Surrealist art from Europe and produced innovative, socially conscious photographs, poems, and other works that advanced the avant-garde movement in Japan.

If you’re in the Los Angeles, California area before this exhibition leaves, don’t miss it.

As I travel, I love seeing the work of other photographers as I hope you do. If you know of a new photographic exhibition which you think the Blog should publicize, please contact me.