HIROSHIMA, Hiroshima, hírou-ʃímə: The Photography and Collective Practice of the All Japan Students Photo Association


This exhibition will introduce Hiroshima Day, a photographic project collectively carried out by members of the All-Japan Students’ Photo Association (AJSPA) in Hiroshima between 1968 and 1971. The project takes its name from August 6, the date of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony. Organized primarily around high school and university photography clubs across the country, the AJSPA welcomed photography critic Tatsuo Fukushima as its de facto leader in the mid-1960s. Under his guidance, the association shifted its focus toward pressing social issues such as the student protests and environmental pollution during a period of profound social change in Japanese society, developing its practice through exhibitions and publications.

Paris Photo Conversations
Photography as a Collective Practice: The Case of the All–Japan Students’ Photo Association
Marc Feustel – Yasufumi Nakamori, Damarice Amao, Julie Jones
Date and Time: 3:30 p.m., Sunday 16 November

This discussion will consider the case of the All–Japan Students Photo Association (AJSPA), a nationwide network of student photographers, and their project on Hiroshima (1968–1971).

The conversation will place the AJSPA’s activities in a global and historical context, exploring how photography can become a collective act and highlighting questions of authorship and anonymity, the political and the artistic, and narratives and counter-narratives.
 
Exhibition Catalog
HIROSHIMA, Hiroshima, hírou-ʃímə: The Photography and Collective Practice of the All– Japan Students' Photo Association
Size: 200×200mm
Pages: 137 pages, 62 plates
Text: Ayumu Tajiri
Translation: Gene Nakazato
Editing: Katsuya Ishida
Graphic Design: Shun Ishizuka
Language: English
Published by MEM
Year: 2025

Available at MEM's booth, C30

Tadayasu Onishi Kuniyoshi Otaki Koji Iwakata Yasumasa Watari Toru Ookawa Noriko Yamaguchi Toshihiko Suto Kouichi Kaihatsu Kyoko Watanuki Kiyokazu Tada