Shinoyama Kishin 1940
Shinoyama Kishin (1940): Japanese photographer
Kishin Shinoyama ( 1940) is a Japanese photographer. The son of a monk, he studied photography at Nihon University in Tokyo from 1961 to 1963, and then published his first group of photographs in Camera Mainichi. He also worked for the Light House agency, and in 1966 he was awarded the Best Young Artist Award by the Japan Critics Association.
Since 1968 he has worked as a freelance writer for fashion and advertising magazines. Two years later, he was chosen as the best Japanese photographer that year. Kishin Shinoyama specialises in nude photography. His photographs are sculptural and abstract, creating a surreal and highly dramatic atmosphere through the use of artificial light and ultra-wide angle lenses. A renowned Japanese photographer, he is one of the few prolific photographers in Japan to work closely with the print media and has published hundreds of books and collections of his work, including Haruhi and Santa Fe Miyazawa Rie, which have had a huge impact on all sectors of Japanese society.
Introduction
Shinoyama Kishin was born in Shinjuku, Tokyo in 1940 and graduated from the Photography Department of Nihon University in 1958. While studying photography at university, he was already a young creative photographer of interest to the photographic community. In 1976 he had a solo exhibition, Home, at the Venice Biennale, and in 1981 he published Kishin Shinoyama – Silk Road, an eight-volume book of photographs. 1987 saw the exhibition Shinoyama Wide Tokyo at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and in 1991 he had a solo exhibition, Shinjuku, in Tokyo.
Major works
In 1976, Shinoyama Kishin represented the Japanese National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Italy. He has also had a significant influence in the popular sphere
He is one of the few prolific photographers in Japan to have worked closely with the print media and has published hundreds of books and collections of his work, including “Sunny Day” and “Santa Fe Miyazawa Rie”, which have had a huge impact on all sectors of Japanese society.
One of Shinoyama Kishin ‘s most important contributions to Japanese photography was to join a number of Japanese photographers of the time in redefining “portraiture” and spreading its influence overseas.
In 1975, at the age of 35, Shinoyama Kishin began photographing nude women and sexy girls, which had an impact on the conservative Japanese society of the time. His 1997 photo book, Maiden Hall, has become a classic in the photo industry. Many of the teenage models involved in the photo shoot went on to become very popular: Sachika Yoshino, Chiaki Kuriyama, Feri Mizutani, Sayaka Suzuki, Maaya Hamachu, Hoshi Ando, Hoshiro Ogura, Sei Ando and many others.
Later, Rie Miyazawa and Konako Higuchi were the most influential, with the latter considered to be the originator of the most open exposure of Japanese nudes.
His work is diverse, and he has spared no effort in introducing traditional literature. Shinoyama Kishin ‘s work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in France, Amsterdam and Los Angeles. In recent years, he has exhibited some 70 works at the North American Pavilion in Taiwan, featuring Japanese idols, courtesans, sumo wrestlers, ceremonial rituals and nature, presenting the beauty of people, light and shadow, and art.
Shinoyama Kishin ‘s success in Europe
In 1970, he introduced Japanese photography to the outside world with his first victory in a prestigious exhibition at the World Image Fair in Cologne, Germany. This is how he used a fashion series through the bodies of nude dancers in a Yokohama tattoo parlour. The photographs were taken with a camera specially set up for multiple exposures. He also published Shinorama in 1985, and in 1990 he ventured into large format images in Nudo di Tokyo.
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