Here Ishimoto has brought us close to bodies that are pointedly anonymous yet not altogether vacated of identity, positioning his camera low to the ground to focus on youthful legs. When he took these pictures, he was studying at the New Bauhaus–Institute of Design in Chicago with photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind and he learned from their attention to the poetry of the smallest details. These images were featured alongside architectural abstractions in Ishimoto’s first photobook, Someday, Somewhere (1958), which includes pictures taken in Chicago and Tokyo.
"Collection 1940s—1970s", 2019
Gallery label from 2020.
Here Ishimoto has brought us close to bodies that are pointedly anonymous yet not altogether vacated of identity, positioning his camera low to the ground to focus on youthful legs. When he took these pictures, he was studying at the New Bauhaus–Institute of Design in Chicago with photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind (whose work is also on view in this gallery), and he learned from their attention to the poetry of the smallest details. These images were featured alongside architectural abstractions in Ishimoto’s first photobook, Someday, Somewhere (1958), which includes pictures taken in Chicago and Tokyo.
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Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Japanese, born United States. 1921–2012 42 works onlineYasuhiro Ishimoto (石元泰博) learned how to photograph in a concentration camp. During the Second World War, cameras were prohibited as contraband in most camps, but Japanese Americans at Amache, Colorado, were allowed access in 1943.
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