Hanran: 20th-Century Japanese Photography

While, like so many others, I miss my regular visits to the National Gallery of Canada and eagerly anticipate its re-opening mid-July, I have been re-exploring online this excellent Japanese photography exhibit from this past fall/winter. I visited the exhibition several times while it was on, and was particularly fascinated and moved by the work of Ishiuchi Miyako (see images below), Nakahira Takuma and Kanemura Osamu

‘Witness a period of socio-political upheaval in 20th-century Japan, through photographs from the Yokohama Museum of Art. Inspired by the Japanese word for flooding, overflow, or deluge, Hanran reflects 20th-century Japan, from the early 1930s to the 1990s, through the lenses of 28 significant photographers. See this unforgettable exhibition, on view for the first time outside Japan, which calls attention to the costs of nuclear warfare and Japan’s extraordinary recovery – all unfolding in front of the camera's mechanical eye.’ -NGC website. More

Read more: 
Long Exposure: Conversation with exhibition curator Eriko Kimura
Japan in the Shōwa Era: Looking Forward and Back
Depth of Field: A Japanese Photography Reading List

Images by Ishiuchi Miyako