TAKUMA NAKAHIRA

Nakahira earned recognition as a thought-provoking figure in photography. In the 1960s, Nakahira believed that images do not represent the world but instead distort and warp it. He used this denial of image representation to challenge society and politics, as well as contemporary photography’s perception as an art form. In 1977, Nakahira was tragically stricken with memory loss and aphasia. He returned to shooting the following year with the images he saw everyday on the street: fire, water, birds, animals, trees, flowers, cats and street people. The colored objective images are the ultimate presentation of his struggle to pursue the provocative questions disclosed in his writings and photography: the essence of photography is only an equivalent record.

Nakahira’s work is collected by prestigious institutions including National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Yokohama Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Text courtesy Each Modern.