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Heads Up: Pictorialist Photography: Soichi Sunami and his Issei Contemporaries – Daiwa Centre, London, 26/4/23…

Posted: January 25th, 2023 | No Comments »

This is Japan rather than the Chinese world, but interesting I think to many who browse ChinaRhyming….

Pictorialist Photography: Soichi Sunami and his Issei Contemporaries at the Daiwa Centre in London April 26th…

David F. Martin will discuss the work and international achievements of Issei photographers active in Seattle, Washington, in the early 20th century.

He will focus primarily on Soichi Sunami (1885-1971) whose artistic career began in Seattle and continued after he relocated to New York where he became the chief photographer for the Museum of Modern Art. Sunami’s main interest was dance photography and his subjects included Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and other iconic dancers of the period.

Martha Graham in Lamentation, 1930, Gelatin silver print; Soichi Sunami (1885-1971); Courtesy of the Sunami Family

The Seattle Camera Club was founded in 1924 and held their first exhibition the following year. They became internationally recognized for their artistic or “Pictorialist” work as a group as well as individually. The key members of SCC were Hiromu Kira (1898–1991), Dr. Kyo Koike (1878–1947), Frank Asakichi Kunishige (1878–1960), and Yukio Morinaga (1888–1968). They exhibited in most of the prestigious international salons of the period, winning awards and having their work reproduced in important photographic publications and catalogues. The SCC became so well known that individual members ranked among the most exhibited photographers in North America.

With the exception of Sunami who was living on the east coast during WWII, the Seattle Issei photographers were interned at the Minidoka relocation centre (concentration camp) which collectively ended their artistic careers.

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