The Art Institute of Chicago, 1999
From 1948 through 1952, Yasuhiro Ishimoto studied photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago. Then he returned to Japan, to Tokyo, where he has lived ever since. Because of a continuing attachment to Chicago, however, Ishimoto has often revisited the city, most notably on a photographic fellowship in 1959–61.
His first book, Someday, Somewhere (1958), contained many pictures from his student days, and in 1969 he published another book—Chicago, Chicago—devoted solely to his adopted city.
By that time, he had also established himself as a Japanese photographer with an eye for native subjects such as Katsura Villa, on which he published a 1960 book in collaboration with architect Kenzo Tange. In recognition of his achievements in photography, Ishimoto was recently named a “Person of Cultural Merit” by the Japanese government. His distinguished career in Japan would, by itself, make him worthy of American attention. But his work has the double fascination that, even at its most Japanese, the influence of his education in America remains obvious.
Colin Westerbeck
With contributions by Arata Isozaki and Fuminori Yokoe
144 pages, 9 1/2 × 10 1/2 in.
109 b/w ills.
Out of print
ISBN: 978-0-865-59170-7 (softcover)
