ICONS: Eikoh Hosoe

© Eikoh Hosoe

On May 6, 2010, Eikoh Hosoe was presented with the 18th-Annual Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Photography by the National Arts Club. This great evening was hosted by Master of Ceremonies Dr. Stanley Burns, President O. Aldon James, Jr., and Catherine Johnson, Chair of the Photography Committee, with whom I work very closely. The unbelievable list of previous honorees names some of my favorite artists, including Duane Michals (1994) and William Eggleston (2003).

© Eikoh Hosoe

Born in the Yamagata Prefecture of Japan in 1933, Mr. Hosoe has long been considered one of the most influential Japanese photographers working since WWII. The creativity found in his work becomes even more sensational when put into the context of Japanese culture and contemporary photography over 50 years ago. He joined his high school photography club in 1949, took top prize in the student category of the Fuji Photo Contest for his work Poddie Jawoski only two years later, and has continued to reinterpret the world through his photographs ever since. He is not only important for his own work, but also as a teacher and an artistic ambassador of Japan.

"Kamaitachi #17" © 1969 Eikoh Hosoe

One of Eikoh’s stories that I especially related to was about the making of Kamaitachi, his unique collaboration created with close friend and interpretive dancer Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of ankoku butoh dance. The 1969 series is inspired by the legend of kamaitachi (‘weasel-sickle’), a weasel-like supernatural being who haunted the Japanese countryside of Hosoe’s childhood, slashing those he encountered with a sickle. The arresting images show Hijikata’s improvisational performance as a wandering ghost in a Northern Japanese farming village, a performance which also included local villagers. His use of fairy tales and his collaborative style of working with his subjects are both at the core of my own artistic pursuits.

(A new hardcover edition of Kamaitachi is available here through the Aperture Foundation, and is an absolute must-have for every collection.)

Eikoh Hosoe and Sean HusVar, May 6, 2010 (© Ben Gabbe)

Eikoh Hosoe is the founder and director of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts and professor of photography at the Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics. Hosoe lives in Tokyo and is represented by the Howard Greenberg Gallery in NYC, where his amazing prints are available for purchase. It was a pleasure to meet Eikoh—such a gifted artist, as well as a warm and incredibly giving person.

“To me, photography can be simultaneously both a record and a “mirror” or “window” of self-expression… The camera is generally assumed to be unable to depict that which is not visible to the eye. And yet the photographer who wields it can depict what lies unseen in his memory.”
—Eikoh Hosoe