Eikoh Hosoe
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Eikoh Hosoe (Hosoe Eikō; b. 18 March 1933 in Yonezawa, Yamagata) is a Japanese photographer and filmmaker who emerged in the experimental arts movement of post-World War II Japan. He is known for his psychologically charged images, often exploring subjects such as death, erotic obsession, and irrationality. Through his friendships and artistic collaborations he is linked with the writer Yukio Mishima and 1960s avant-garde artists such the dancer Tatsumi Hijikata.
After attending The Tokyo College of Photography in the 1950's Hosoe, joined “Demokrato” an avant-garde artist's group led by the artist Ei Q, while still a student. In 1960, Hosoe created the Jazz Film Laboratory (Jazzu Eiga Jikken-shitsu) with Hijikata, Shuji Terayama, and Shōmei Tōmatsu. The Jazz Film Laboratory was a multidisciplinary artistic project aimed at producing highly expressive and intense works such as Hosoe's 1960 short black and white film Navel and A-Bomb (Heso to genbaku).
With Hijikata, Hosoe created Kamaitachi, a series of images that reference stories of a supernatural being — 'weasel-sickle' — that haunted the Japanese countryside of Hosoe's childhood. In the photographs, Hijikata is seen as a wandering ghost mirroring the stark landscape and confronting farmers and children.
With Mishima as a model, Hosoe created a series of dark, erotic images centered on the male body, Ordeal by Roses (Bara-kei, 1963). The series (set in Mishima's Tokyo house) positions Mishima in melodramatic poses. Mishima would follow his fantasies, eventually committing suicide by seppuku in 1970.
Hosoe has been the director of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (Kiyosato, Yamanashi) since its opening in 1995.
Books of Hosoe's works
Books devoted to Hosoe
- A Place Called Hiroshima. Kodansha America, 1990. ISBN 0-87011-961-3 Text by Betty Lifton
- Ba-ra-kei: Ordeal by Roses. New York: Aperture, 2002. ISBN 0-89381-169-6
- Eikoh Hosoe. Aperture Masters of Photography. New York: Aperture, 1999. ISBN 0-89381-824-0
- Kamaitachi. New York: Aperture, 2006. ISBN 1-931788-80-4
- The Butterfly Dream. Kyoto: Seigensha, 2006. ISBN 4-86152-092-4
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