Eikoh Hosoe

Abstract

Eikoh Hosoe has been a major innovator in Japanese photography since the 1950s, and an inspiration for younger Japanese photographers. Born the son of a Shinto priest and reared in a Shinto shrine, Hosoe had a strong spiritual foundation, and continued to explore the world of the spirit during a time of increasing materialism and technology in Japan. In 1959 Hosoe and several others founded VIVO, a photo agency which broke with Japan's traditional photography. He was a pivotal figure in the history of postwar Japanese photography, because he introduced experimentation and freedom into the medium. Hosoe is best known for his ‘subjective documentary,’ Ordeal by Roses (1963), a series of disturbing portraits of Yukio Mishima, the novelist. In this series Hosoe broke with the traditional documentary approach to photography and used straight photographs, manipulated development, multiple printing, sandwiched negatives, high-contrast copy negatives, bird's-eye and worm' s-eye views all of which resulted in highly poetic imagery. Their reference to the dream state and surrealism is undeniable. Hosoe's photographs can also be autobiographical, for example, Kamaitachi (1969) where he collaborated with Tatsumi Hijikata, the dancer, to recall memories of the Second World War. Hosoe changed from silver to platinum prints for this series. In addition, when Hosoe photographs the nude, it becomes less of a sensual object and more of an ethereal symbol as in Man and Woman (1961) or the sequel, Embrace (1969–70). His photographs of Antonio Gaudi's fantastic Barcelona architecture dramatically transformed and humanized the structures: stone becomes anthromorphized. Hosoe was haunted by Gaudi's architecture, because in it he perceived a kindred ‘Zen spirit.’ Mr Hosoe was interviewed at the Vision Gallery, San Francisco, California on 6 September 1990.