Daiwa Institute, London Lecture – Pictorialist Photography: Soichi Sunami & his Issei Contemporaries – 26/4/23

Posted: April 25th, 2023 | No Comments »

26/4/23 6pm at the Daiwa foundation, Regents Park, London – David Martin, Curator for Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, WA on Pictorialist Photography: Soichi Sunami & his Issei Contemporaries –

David F. Martin will discuss the work and international achievements of Issei photographers active in Seattle, Washington, in the early 20^th century.

He will focus primarily on Soichi Sunami (1885-1971) whose artistic career began in Seattle and continued after he relocated to New York where he became the chief photographer for the Museum of Modern Art. Sunami’s main interest was dance photography and his subjects included Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn and other iconic dancers of the period.

The Seattle Camera Club was founded in 1924 and held their first exhibition the following year. They became internationally recognized for their artistic or “Pictorialist” work as a group as well as individually. The key members of SCC were Hiromu Kira (1898–1991), Dr. Kyo Koike (1878–1947), Frank Asakichi Kunishige (1878–1960), and Yukio Morinaga (1888–1968). They exhibited in most of the prestigious international salons of the period, winning awards and having their work reproduced in important photographic publications and catalogues. The SCC became so well known that individual members ranked among the most exhibited photographers in North America.

With the exception of Sunami who was living on the east coast during WWII, the Seattle Issei photographers were interned at the Minidoka relocation centre (concentration camp) which collectively ended their artistic careers.

Tix and details here

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