Gallery White Room Tokyo


日本語

29 Aug 08 to 26 Oct 08　・　6 Nov 08 to 30 Nov 08
Opening Reception with the artist: Friday 29 Aug 08, 19:00 - 21:30

GALLERY WHITE ROOM TOKYO is pleased to announce a solo exhibition titled “Embrace and Ordeal by Roses” by a photographer Eikoh Hosoe from 29 August to 26 October 2008.

Eikoh Hosoe’s unique photographic aesthetics have won high praise internationally for half a century long. The series “Embrace” (1971) has been regarded as a work which succeeded in extracting the essence of life and sophisticatedly abstracting human bodies. The series “Ordeal by Roses” (1963) featured the novelist, Yukio Mishima, as the subject, and it became one of Hosoe’s best known works as well as one of the most important works within the Japan’s post-war history of photography.

From the series “Embrace”, large-sized archival pigment prints are shown at the exhibition. These are the first ever limited edition work by Eikoh Hosoe. From the series “Ordeal by Roses”, platinum palladium prints are exhibited in the VIEWING & VIP ROOM. This exhibition reflects the photographer’s concept of values which had to be changed due to the recent changes in the photographic technologies and it has become a significant turning point for Eikoh Hosoe.

A limited number of 1000 copies of the original catalogue will be published, with the serial number and the photographer's autograph for each.

Artist’s Profile

Born in 1933. In 1956 he held his first solo exhibition, “An American Girl in Tokyo”. In 1959, Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Kikuji Kawada, Akira Satoh, Akira Tanno and Ikko Narahara started the agency VIVO, which held a central role in the changes of postwar photography.

			He is the author of several photography books published in 1960s including Man and Woman (1961), Ordeal by Roses (1963) , Kamaitachi (1969). Other publications include Embrace (1971), The Cosmos of Gaudi (1984), Luna Rossa (2000), Shumpon, Ukiyo-e Projections (2003), Why, Mother, Why? (2004), and The Butterfly Dream (2006). He is Honorary Professor of Tokyo Polytechnic University and Director of Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts. Hosoe received Minister of Education Award for Arts for Kamaitachi in 1970. In 1998, he was awarded Purple Ribbon Medal from the Government for his Achievement of Photographic Art. In 2004, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of The Royal Photographic Society, he was given a special decoration. In 2006, he was awarded Visionary Award in Lucie Award. The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego awarded Hosoe their Century Award for Life Time Achievement. In 2007, he received The Order of the Rising Sun Gold Rays with Rosette from the Government. In 2008, he received Mainichi Art Award.