Special Issue Photo Technic: Yoichi Midorikawa - His Life and Works

A special issue of Photo Technic, featuring photographer Yoichi Midorikawa.

More than just a collection of works, this issue is edited to comprehensively introduce "the artist and their work," including not only representative plates but also round-table discussions, technical explanations, essays, accompanying reports, critiques, and a chronology. It aims to trace "how the works came into being, shaped by their environment, philosophy, and techniques" from multiple perspectives.

This book features landscape works centered on the Seto Inland Sea and new works from 1978. In the round-table discussion "Talking About Yo-chan's Photos" with Shotaro Akiyama and Tadahiko Hayashi, anecdotes from the post-war Japanese photography world, the photography division of Nikakai, and the Ginryusha era are also recounted. Furthermore, contents such as "The Era When Landscape Photographers Photographed 'Women'" and "Photography and Regionality" offer fascinating insights into the photography culture of the time.

Additionally, it includes contributions and critiques from photographers and related figures such as Shoji Ueda, making it a valuable document for understanding one aspect of post-war Japanese photography history.

[Title] Bessatsu Photo Technic Yoichi Midorikawa: The Man and His Work
[Publisher] Genkosha
[Publication Date] January 20, 1980 (Reprint)
[Pages] 156 pages
[Dimensions] Approx. 18025512mm / 455g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] BESSATSU FOTOTEKUNIKKU MIDORIKAWA YOICHI HITO TO SAKUHIN
[Author/Editor, etc.] Yoichi Midorikawa/Author, Hitoshi Shimizu/Editor, Tatsumi Kadoguchi/Layout
[Printing] Miura Printing/Printing, Gravure Seikosha/Printing, Dainippon Printing/Printing, Dainippon Seihon/Binding
[ISBN] None
[Condition] Used【6】Good to Fair (Cover: age discoloration, Book body: foxing on edges, light stains, light binding damage)
[Accessories] None
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibitions] -

Yoichi Midorikawa (みどりかわ・よういち) 1915-2001

Born in Oku-cho, Oku-gun, Okayama Prefecture. Photographer and dentist.
In 1936, he graduated from Nihon University Dental School. He began photography production during his studies, and the following year, 1937, he opened a dental clinic in Ekimae-cho, Okayama City. Around the same time, he formed the photography group "Ginryusha" with Tadahiko Hayashi and Shotaro Akiyama, beginning serious photographic activities.

He was active in the salon photography movement before the war, receiving awards such as the Ars Camera Annual Award and the 1st Nikaten Photography Division Nikakai Award. He was one of the key artists who supported the establishment of the Nikakai Photography Division, and later served as a judge.

Widely known for his landscape photography centered on the Seto Inland Sea, he produced numerous works that emotionally captured the seas, mountains, rivers, and fishing village landscapes of Japan. From the 1950s to the 1970s, he gained high popularity as a leading figure in Japanese landscape photography.

In 1960, he received the Camera Art Color Work Award; in 1962, the Japan Photo Critics Association Award; in 1963, the Japan Photography Association Artist Award and the Okayama Prefecture Cultural Award. In 1973, he received the Nikaten Prime Minister's Award.

His works were also permanently housed in institutions such as the National Library of France and the Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK, earning him international recognition.

Major works and exhibitions include "Two Farming Villages," "Kurashiki," "Osaka," "Seto Inland Sea," and "Mountains and Rivers of Japan." He is known as a photographer who established an era of Japanese landscape photography while based in a regional area.

< Related Figures >

Tadahiko Hayashi, Hiroshi Hamaya, Shotaro Akiyama, Shoji Ueda, Hiroshi Hamaya, Shinzo Maeda