Kohei Yoshiyuki is a Japanese photographer who attracted much attention in 1979 with his exhibition "Kōen" (公園, Park). The black-and-white photographs were presented in a book published in 1980 that is "nominally a soft-core voyeur's manual", with photographs of people in sexual activities in Shinjuku and Yoyogi parks (both in Tokyo), mostly with unknown spectators around them. The photographs were taken with a 35 millimetre camera and infrared flashbulbs. Gerry Badger and others have commented on how the photographs raise questions about the boundaries between spectator, voyeur and participant.

Chronology

1946 - Born in Hiroshima, Japan.
1972 - A photograph taken in a park at night using infrared film was published in Shukan Shincho and became the talk of the town.
1974 - Worked as a photographer for the Tokyo office of a British news agency (-1978).
1978 - Begins working as a freelance photographer. His work was published mainly in magazines such as Focus and Shashin Jidai.

Publications

1980 - “Document Park” (Seibunsha)
1992 - “Kohei Yoshiyuki: Infrared Rays” (Hokusosha)
2007 - “Kohei Yoshiyuki: The Park” (Hatje Cantz/Yossi Milo Gallery)

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1979 - “The Park” Komai Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo
2007 - “The Park” Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
2007 - “The Park and Love Hotel” Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver
2009 - “The Park” Brancolini Grimaldi Arte Contemporanea, Rome
2009 - “The Park 1971-1978” Place M, Yotsuya, Tokyo
2009 - “沼” Sokyu-sha Gallery, Yotsuya, Tokyo
2010 - “The Park” M+B Gallery, Los Angeles
2011 - “The Park” Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
2011 - “The Park” BLD Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007 - 5th Berlin Biennial of Contemporary Art
2007 - 7th Gwangju Biennale
2009 - “The Provoke Era” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
2009 - “The 70s” Photo España 2009, Madrid
2009 - “Darkside” Museum of Photography Winterthur, Switzerland
2010 - “Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera” The Tate Modern, London; traveled to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Walker Art Center

Books from Kohei YOSHIYUKI