shashasha

Originally trained in Western Painting, Japanese artist Osamu Shiihara (1905-1974) often turned to photography during his creative years. This retrospective (edited by German publisher Roland Angst) presents an overview of his photographic output which, while influenced by rules and customs of western painting, make use of the idiosyncrasies of photography to form their own genre – a point Shiihara stressed in his texts: “Photography should not continue to take the same path as painting forever. It has developed under the influence of painting, however, now is the time that it must be real to itself and take its own path as photography[…]”

In addition to the photographs, the book also includes a foreword by Shiihara’s son Tamotsu (himself an artist) and a comprehensive essay by photo historian Ryuichi Kaneko in which he traces the birth of modern photography in Japan and Shiihara’s role in this development (both texts in English and Japanese).