About this artwork
Kazuo Sumida made this photograph during a period of grieving following the death of his father in 1984. He began frequenting nightclubs in the pleasure district of his hometown of Kochi, exploring darkness both literally and metaphorically. Working with unobtrusive night-ready equipment, he managed to photograph patrons of the clubs without being noticed or confronted. Sumida knew that his mother’s brother, Otatsu, had become a nightclub performer, but now he learned that his uncle was in fact performing as a striptease transvestite geisha at Nobara, a downtown gay bar, and began to focus on him as a subject. This photograph of Otatsu—composed and printed in the inky, off-kilter style first perfected by the Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama—shows sexual openness and masquerade, increasingly important topics for photography then not only in Japan but in the West as well.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- Kazuo Sumida
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Title
- Otatsu-san, at Bar Nobara, Kochi City, Japan, from the series "Tosa Late Night Dianry and Uncle"
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Place
- Japan (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- Made 1982–1992
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Medium
- Gelatin silver print
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Dimensions
- Image: 23.4 × 35.7 cm (9 1/4 × 14 1/16 in.); Paper: 25.4 × 37.6 cm (10 × 14 13/16 in.)
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Credit Line
- Photography and Media Purchase Fund
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Reference Number
- 2013.15
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Copyright
- © 1987 Kazuo Sumida.
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
