Background
Shohmei Tohmatsu was born on January 16, 1930, in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
(Black Sun is an unprecedented portrait of postwar Japan t...)
Black Sun is an unprecedented portrait of postwar Japan through the eyes of four of the nation's most significant photographers.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Sun-Innovation-Japanese-Photography/dp/0893811858/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&qid=1606807581&refinements=p_27%3AShomei+Tomatsu&s=books&sr=1-4&text=Shomei+Tomatsu
1986
(One of Japan's foremost twentieth-century photographers, ...)
One of Japan's foremost twentieth-century photographers, Shomei Tomatsu has created a defining portrait of postwar Japan. Beginning in the late 1950s, Tomatsu photographed as many of the American military bases as possible - beginning with those on the main island of Japan and ending in Okinawa, a much-contested archipelago off the southernmost tip of the country. Tomatsu's photographs focused on the seismic impact of the American victory and occupation: uniformed American soldiers carousing in red-light districts with Japanese women; foreign children at play in the seedy landscape of cities like Yokosuka and Atsugi; and the emerging protest- and counter-culture formed in response to the ongoing American military presence. Tomatsu originally named this series "Occupation," but later retitled it "Chewing Gum and Chocolate" to reflect the handouts given to Japanese kids by the soldiers - sugary and addictive, but lacking in nutritional value. And although many of his most iconic images are from this series, the best of this work has never before been gathered together in a single volume. Leo Rubinfien, co-curator of the photographer's survey "Skin of the Nation," contributes an essay that engages with Tomatsu's ambivalence toward the American occupation and the shifting national identity of Japan. Also included in this volume are never-before-translated writings by Tomatsu from the 1960s and 70s, providing context for both the artist's original intentions and the sociopolitical thinking of the time.
https://www.amazon.com/Shomei-Tomatsu-Chewing-Gum-Chocolate/dp/159711250X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=shomei+tomatsu&qid=1606806983&sr=8-1
(This important book is the first in-depth English-languag...)
This important book is the first in-depth English-language study of Tomatsu’s work. Richly illustrated and handsomely designed, it features more than one hundred plates representing - in ten thematic sections - the full range of his career.
https://www.amazon.com/Shomei-Tomatsu-Nation-Leo-Rubinfien/dp/0300106041/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1606807581&refinements=p_27%3AShomei+Tomatsu&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Shomei+Tomatsu
照明 東松
Shohmei Tohmatsu was born on January 16, 1930, in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Shohmei Tohmatsu studied economics at Aichi University, graduating in 1954. While still a student, he had his photographs published by the major Japanese photography magazines.
Shohmei Tohmatsu entered Iwanami and worked on the series Iwanami Shashin Bunko. Two years later, he left in order to freelance. In 1959, Tōmatsu formed Vivo with Eikoh Hosoe and Ikkō Narahara. Two years later, his and Ken Domon's book Hiroshima - Nagasaki Document 1961, on the effects of the atomic bombs, was published to great acclaim.
In 1972, Shohmei Tohmatsu moved to Okinawa; in 1975, his prizewinning book of photographs of Okinawa, Pencil of the Sun (太陽の鉛筆, Taiyō no enpitsu) was published. He moved to Nagasaki in 1998.
Shohmei Tohmatsu died in Naha (Okinawa) on 14 December 2012 (although this was not publicly announced until January 2013).
(Black Sun is an unprecedented portrait of postwar Japan t...)
1986(One of Japan's foremost twentieth-century photographers, ...)
(This important book is the first in-depth English-languag...)