Ikkō Narahara


Ikkō Narahara was a Japanese photographer. His work is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Early life and education

Born in Fukuoka, Narahara studied law at Chuo University and, influenced by statues of Buddha at Nara, art history at the graduate school of Waseda University, from which he received an MA in 1959.

Career

He had his first solo exhibition, Ningen no tochi, at the Matsushima Gallery in 1956. In this Narahara showed Kurokamimura, a village on Sakurajima. The exhibition brought instant renown. In his second exhibition, "Domains", at the Fuji Photo Salon in 1958, he showed a Trappist monastery in Tobetsu, and a women's prison in Wakayama.
In the meantime, Narahara had shown his works in the first of three exhibitions titled The Eyes of Ten; exhibited in all three, and went on to co-found the short-lived Vivo collective. From 1962 to 1965 he stayed in Paris, and after a time in Tokyo, from 1970 to 1974 in New York City. During this time he took part in a class by the American photographer Diane Arbus. He recorded Arbus' speech during these classes. These recordings would become an interesting document of the artist's statements about her own work shortly before she committed suicide.
Narahara's work often depicted isolated communities and extreme conditions. He made much use of wide-angle lenses, even hemispherical-coverage fisheye lenses.
In 1967 Narahara won the Photographer of the Year Award from the Japan Photo Critics Association. He won numerous other prizes. From 1999 to 2005, Narahara was a professor at the Graduate School of Kyushu Sangyo University.

Works by Narahara

Booklength collections

  • Yōroppa: seishi shita jikan. Kajima, 1967.
  • Supēn: Idai naru gogo ''España: Grand tarde, Fiesta, Vaya con Dios. Tokyo: Kyūryūdō, 1969.
  • Japanesuku. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbun-sha, 1970.
  • Ōkoku / Man and his land. Tokyo: Chūōkoronsha, 1971.
  • Shōmetsu shita jikan / Where time has vanished. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun-sha, 1975.
  • Seven From Ikko. Tokyo : Unac, 1976.
  • Ōkoku: Chinmoku no sono, kabe no naka. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1978.
  • Chikakute haruka na tabi. Tokyo: Shūeisha, 1979.
  • Hikari no kairō: San Maruko. Tokyo: Unac, 1981.
  • Shashin no jikan. Tokyo: Kōsakusha, 1981. With Seigow Matsuoka.
  • Narahara Ikkō. Shōwa shashin zenshigoto 9. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun-sha, 1983.
  • Venetsia no yoru / Venice: Nightscapes. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1985.. Most of the text is in Japanese only, but the captions and an essay by Narahara are in English as well as Japanese.
  • Shōzō no fūkei. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1985..
  • Ningen no tochi, Human land. Tokyo: Libroport, 1987.
  • *Fukkan, 2017.
  • Hoshi no kioku. Tokyo: Parco, 1987.
  • Venetsia no hikari / Venetian Light. Tokyo: Ryūkō Tsūshin, 1985..
  • Burōdowei / Broadway. Tokyo: Creo, 1991..
  • Dyushan dai-garasu to Takiguchi Shūzō shigā bokkusu / Marcel Duchamp large glass with Shuzo Takiguchi cigar box. Tokyo: Misuzu, 1992..
  • Kū / Emptiness. Tokyo: Libroport, 1994..
  • Takemitsu, Tōru and Giovanni Chiaramonte. Ikko Narahara: Japanesque. Milan: Motta, 1994.. In Italian
  • Revised and augmented edition: Tokyo: Creo, 1995.
  • Tokyo, the '50s. Tokyo: Mole, 1996..
  • Narahara Ikkō. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1997.
  • Poketto Tōkyō / Pocket Tokyo. Tokyo: Creo, 1997..
  • Ten / Heaven. Tokyo: Creo, 2002.
  • Mukokuseki-chi / Stateless Land: 1954. Tokyo: Creo, 2004..
  • Jikū no kagami / Mirror of space and time. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 2004..
  • En / En: Circular vision.'' Tokyo: Creo, 2004..

Other books with work by Narahara

Collections

General sources