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This is a selection of photographs scanned from Photograms of the Year - representing a cross section of Japanese American photographers from the West Coast of the USA. Noting that the photographers would have been packed off to internment camps during World War II and forbidden to own cameras for the duration.
Following taken from an online review New York Times 1988
"They readily adopted its compositional tropes and its attention to chiaroscuro and texture, producing images with affinities to Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and sumi-e painting.
Ironically, the elements of Japanese style in these photographs come not from any inherent or native tradition, but from American Pictorialism's own Japonisme, which was largely inspired by the paintings of Whistler and the Post-Impressionists.
Edward Weston, also a Pictorialist early in his career, was a direct influence on many Japanese-Americans in the Los Angeles area, including Toyo Miyatake, one of the show's most interesting figures.
Miyatake's untitled abstraction of 1925 is a striking example of how Cubism and Pictorialism could be brought together, if not quite reconciled. Weston's influence extended as far north as Seattle, as can be seen in Frank Kunishige's soft-focus 1927 image of a lithe barely draped woman, which recalls Weston's much earlier portraits of Margarethe Mather.
Another photographer who stands out for his adaptive talents is Hiromu Kira. Unlike Miyatake, Kira eschewed pure abstraction, but his patterned compositions of dishware seem as modern as any Bauhaus light study. Two images of folded-paper birds, from 1927, are especially endearing; they combine elements of hard-edged geometric abstraction with the lyrical, transformative evocations of origami."
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another reference LA Times 1986
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| Asaishi, K. LINES AND ANGLES 1927 |
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| Izumi, S. THE SHADOW 1933 |
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| Kato, Taizo SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW 1921 |
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| Kimura, H.E. THE AVIATOR 1931 |
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| Kimura, Takeshi THE GREEN BEAM 1927 |
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| Kira, Hiromu AN ARRANGEMENT 1929 |
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| Kono, A. POND FANTASY 1931 |
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| Kono, A. SUMMER TIME 1928 |
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| Kunishigie, F.A. THE BROKEN BOWL 1925 |
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| Mayeda, T. DESIGN STUDY 1928 |
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| Mayeda, T. WHIRLPOOL OF OIL BUBBLES 1929 |
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| Miyamoto, H. LINE STUDY 1926 |
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| Morita, R. TWILIGHT PATTERN 1930 |
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| Nakagawa, S. DEPARTURE 1929 |
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| Nakamura, K. BREAKING WAVE 1929 |
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| Nakamura, K. EVENING WAVES 1927 |
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| Nakamura, K. THE DANCER 1932 |
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| Nohira, T. JAPANESE JARS 1931 |
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| Ogasawara, F.T. A PORTRAIT OF MRS B. 1923 |
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| Ohara, K. THE HARBOUR 1928 |
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| Ohara, Kichiji EVENING SHADOWS 1929 |
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| Onishi, H. SILVER AND GLASS 1927 |
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| Shimojima, Kaye DESIGN JAPONICA 1925 |
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| Shindo, T.K. THE SHADOW 1931 |
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| Shindo, T.K. DRAGON FLY 1933 |
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| Shindo, T.K. OIL AND WATER 1932 |
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| Shindo, T.K. STILL LIFE 1928 |
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| Shindo, T.K. Still Life 1942 |
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| Shindo, T.K. SUMMER EMOTIONS 1929 |
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| Tanaka, K. WATER-LILY 1927 |
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| Tsukane, T.K. SERPENTINE AND DADO 1928 |
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| Yaginuma, R.M. REPOSE 1932 |
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| Yaginuma, R.M. STILL LIFE 1930 |
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