1969
Shomei Tomatsu
Untitled, Tokyo
Shomei Tomatsu
Untitled, Tokyo, 1969
From Protest, Tokyo
Gelatin-silver print, 29.1 x 39.9 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
2007-026-008
© Shomei Tomatsu/Courtesy PRISKA PASQUER, Köln
Untitled, Tokyo, 1969
From Protest, Tokyo
Gelatin-silver print, 29.1 x 39.9 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
2007-026-008
© Shomei Tomatsu/Courtesy PRISKA PASQUER, Köln
b. 1930 (Nagoya, JP) – 2012 (Naha, JP)
Shomei Tomatsu is a mighty figure in post-war Japanese photography, who has intensively explored the nature of a Japan forced to accept Americanization. For a long time, however, the situation was not only viewed as a pure occupation, but also as an emancipation from a stultified society. There is the Tomatsu of old Japan, of the atom bomb, and of Americanization. And then there is the Tomatsu of southern Japan, of the search for peace, authenticity, and a home in nature. His photographs consistently emphasize the scanning of the skin of the earth, the skin of society.