1968-Japanese Photography

The latter half of the 1960s was a tumultuous time in every region of the world, a period in which the existing frameworks of society were questioned and opposed. In the world of photography, that questioning addressed the independence of the photograph, which Modern Photography had established, and the history that justified that independence. In Japan, 1968 saw a cluster of significant events in photographic circles: The Japan Professional Photographers Society held the A Century of Photography: History of Japanese Photographic Expression in the Past 100 Years Exhibition; Taki Koji, Nakahira Takuma, Takanashi Yutaka, and others launched the photography magazine Provoke: Provocative Materials for Thought; and the Camera Mainichi magazine carried a special section introducing trends among young photographers with distinctive views of the everyday, under the rubric of "Kon-Pora" (contemporary) photography. Meanwhile, the seething student movement spread from the universities to the streets and then to farming villages, and photographs taken by those participating in the struggle became part of the rebellion. The year 1968 thus saw a cluster of events of great significance for our thinking about the societal framework for photography today.

This exhibition traces how the framework of what we understand as photography in Japan was being transformed, and was trying to transform society, in the years 1966 to 1974, with 1968 the critical focus. What is photography? What is Japan? What is modern? Raising questions on all these fronts, it searches for a way forward.