Self and Others: Japanese Photography after 1968

The first issue of Provoke magazine, published in Tokyo in November 1968, declared that “we as photographers must capture with our own eyes the fragments of reality that can no longer be grasped through existing language.” With this manifesto, Provoke encapsulated the energy of a time in which established conventions were discarded, and a new generation experimented with fresh outlooks and new technologies that shattered assumptions of what a photograph could be. Photobooks became the primary vehicle for transmitting radical approaches to visuality, and photographers transformed the fields of design, sculpture, installation, and film. This exhibition focuses on three innovations developed in Japan in the 1970s—are-bure-boke (grainy-blurry-out of focus), konpora (contemporary), and I-photography (first-person). These intertwined concepts profoundly impacted late-twentieth-century Japanese culture and art around the world.

Photographers featured include Shotaro Akiyama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Shigeo Gocho, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Kosuke Kimura, Jun Morinaga, Daido Moriyama, Masatoshi Naito, Takuma Nakahira, Tamiko Nishimura, Jiro Takamatsu, Yutaka Takanashi, and Shomei Tomatsu. Special thanks to Hirsch Library and the Manfred Heiting Book Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Anton Kern Gallery, and Alison Bradley Projects for generously loaning artworks for this exhibition, which is presented in conjunction with the 2025 Louisville Photo Biennial.

Image credit: Masatoshi Naito, [a street performer swallowing a snake], in Ken, no. 2 (pp. 22-23), October 1970, magazine, 9 x 7 ½ x 1/2 inches (23 x 18.9 x 1.3 cm). Courtesy of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Manfred Heiting Book Collection. Photo: Paul Hester, Hester + Hardaway Photographers.