YOSHINO (Keiichiro).        

45 Vintage photographs.

Gelatine-Silver prints. Various sizes:  8 very large (ca. 40 x 32cm), and 37 large (between ca. 22 x 26cm to ca. 30 x 25cm, incl. 5 mounted on loose boards). Overall in very good condition. [Tokyo], ca. 1940s- 1950s.

Yoshino Keiichiro (1895-1983) was a noted amateur photographer. In 1924 he became a member of the Japan Photographic Society (Nihon Shashinkai) and his work was first exhibited in 1931. Initially his ideas were influenced by Fukuhara Shinzo‘s writings on the ’Light and its Harmony’ and he clearly retained some of those techniques in his later work even if the subject matter is clearly shaped by modernist ideas. Most of the images seem to have been taken in and around the vicinity of Tabata station, where the photographer lived. They portray the return of peace and prosperity after the debilitating war, and are infused with a deep underlying sense of emotion: The high-contrast prints seem to retain some aspects of ’zokei shashin’ where light and shadow as well as abstract lines play a larger role than the subject matter itself. There are some spectacular night scenes of the railway tracks where the beams of flood-lights form abstract shapes. Other images show people going to or returning from work - many are taken from an elevated perspective. Modern ’danchi’ (multi-story apartments) contrast with traditional houses. A further remarkable image is a low perspective shot of a road with a zebra crossing stretched across the centre: the road fades into the distance, lined by houses, telephone posts and new cars, whilst bridges fall horizontally across the sky. C.f. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography: ’328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers’. Tankosha, 2000. p.332