Kahmann Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition

EIKOH HOSOE
“IRRATIONALITY”

March 11 – May 10 2011

Eikoh Hosoe (Japan, 1933) is undoubtedly among the most important masters of photography since World War II. He is known for his psychologically charged images, often exploring subjects such as death, erotic obsession and irrationality.

Kahmann Gallery is proud to present a retrospective of 25 beautiful black and white silver prints. Hosoe graduated from “The Tokyo College of Photography” in 1951 and had his first exhibit in 1956, a one-man show. Since then, for almost half a century, he has produced epoch-making works and has established himself as an internationally acclaimed photographer. He abandoned a documentary style for bold images utilizing mythology, metaphor and theatrical impulses.

"… To me photography can be simultaneously both a record and a mirror or
window of self-expression…" Eikoh Hosoe.


Hosoe’s work pushes the boundaries of traditional photography by integrating dance and theatre into photographic essays that are located in the area between reality and fiction. His interactions with the novelist Yukio Mishima and the founder of Butoh dance, Tatsumi Hijikata, formed the basis for two of his most celebrated series of works, respectively Barakei (Ordeal by Roses, 1963) and Kamaitachi (1965–1968).

Hosoe decided to pursue a photographic career after winning the first prize in the student group of the Fuji Photo Contest. He later enrolled at the Tokyo College of Photography, from which he graduated in 1954. Hosoe was one of the photographers that participated in The Eyes of Ten exhibition (1957) and was also one of the founding members of the Vivo agency in 1959. Teaching has always been an important part of Hosoe’s career, in 1975 he was offered a professorship at the Tokyo College of Photography. Hosoe is the director of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Yamanashi prefecture. A retrospective of his work, Spherical Dualism of Photography: The World of Eikoh Hosoe, was shown at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2006.