Dates ｜January 7 –26, 2025
Venue｜MEM  map
Hours｜13:00 – 19:00 ( close from 14:00 to 17:00 on 26th January due to Talk event.)
Closed | Monday (Open if Monday is a public holiday, closed the following weekday)
Phone | 03-6459-3205
Organized with contributions from Takashi Goto, Jo Takeba, Takashi Sakata, Chiseko Tajima

Talk Event: Silence or Conversion: Jo Takeba, Satoko Hironaka
15:00, on 26th January, at MEM
Participation Fee | 1200yen
Capacity of 20 persons
Reservation only, Japanese version only

Reservations are available through MEM’s online store.

In the 1930s, avant-garde photographic expression began to flourish nationwide, particularly through amateur photography clubs in regional cities. This exhibition highlights the works of key photographers associated with the avant-garde photography movement in Nagoya, focusing on their output from the prewar to the early postwar period.

In 1934, Minoru Sakata opened a camera and photography supply store in Nagoya, attracting a group of artists, including painter Yoshio Shimozato, poet Chiruu Yamanaka, and photographers Tsugio Tajima and Taizo Inagaki. Together, they formed the avant-garde photography collective Nagoya Photo Gruppe. In 1937, Yamanaka collaborated with Shuzo Takiguchi to organize the the Exhibition of Surrealist Works from Overseas, which toured Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Kyoto, marking the first major introduction of European Surrealist works to Japan.

During this period, magazines like Photo Times and Cameraman featured discussions on avant-garde photography and surrealism, sparking new photographic movements. In 1937, the Avant-Garde Imaging Group was formed in Osaka by members of the Naniwa Photography Club. That same year in Nagoya, painters and avant-garde artists established the Nagoya Avant-Garde Club, which in 1939 saw its photography division split off to form Nagoya Photo Avant-Garde. Members included Chiruu Yamanaka, Minoru Sakata, Yoshio Shimozato, Taizo Inagaki, Tsugio Tajima, and Kansuke Yamamoto. However, in the politically charged atmosphere of the time, with avant-garde expression suppressed and photojournalism promoted, Nagoya Photo Avant-Garde was short-lived, disbanding in November 1939. Sakata shifted his focus to ethnographic photography centered on Mingei, Japanese folk art, parting ways with Yamamoto, who remained committed to avant-garde expression.

After the war, Sakata did not resume his photography activities, but Yamamoto, Takada, Hattori, and Goto formed the avant-garde photography group VIVI in 1947. This marked a revival of avant-garde photography in Nagoya, as they sought new forms of expression in the changing postwar society.

Shortly after the war, Social Realist photographers led by figures like Ken Domon and Ihei Kimura gained prominence in Japan. At the same time, Otto Steinert’s Subjective Photography movement from Germany was introduced to Japan. This movement gained support within Japan’s photography circles, leading to the establishment of the Japan Subjective Photography Federation by figures like Shuzo Takiguchi. In 1956, the first International Subjective Photography Exhibition was held in Tokyo, with Keiichiro Goto and Kansuke Yamamoto among its participants. Both Social Realism and Subjective Photography movements began to decline by the late 1950s.

This exhibition presents works by Minoru Sakata, Keiichiro Goto, Minayoshi Takada, Tsugio Tajima, Yoshifumi Hattori, and Kansuke Yamamoto, tracing the trajectories of these Nagoya-based photographers as they navigated the shifting tides of the prewar and postwar eras, pursuing their unique photographic expressions.