LOOK – Yasuhiro Ishimoto

The Spring 2010 issue of Aperture Magazine has a feature on Japanese-American Photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto.  The photo below was taken in Chicago between 1959-1961.  Yasuhiro Ishimoto was born in San Francisco and raised Kochi City, Japan. In 1939, due to concerns of him being drafted he returned to the US where he studied agriculture at the University of California (1940-42). He moved to Chicago in 1944 and began to study architecture at Northwestern University in 1946 when he met photographer Harry Shigeta and took up photography seriously. Two years later Ishimoto transferred to the Institute of Design where he studied with Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Gordon Coster(1948-52). In 1961 he returned to Japan (Tokyo), where he has lived ever since. Ishimoto showed his devotion to his adopted city, Chicago, in his book, Chicago, Chicago (Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 1969). This book is often regarded as Ishimoto’s most personal statement – his bold use of contrast, the design of the frame, and the influence of his studies in architecture define his Chicago. Ishimoto has published many books and exhibited widely throughout Japan and the US. In 1999 he was the subject of a career retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Untitled from the Chicago photographs © 1961 Yasuhiro Ishimoto