Photographer Ishimoto Yasuhiro (1921-2012) was born in the United States and studied at the Institute of Design (known as the New Bauhaus) in Chicago. His works, which acutely captured the structural and spatial characteristics of his subjects, had a major impact not only on the world of photography, but on the wider art world of post-war Japan, spanning architecture, design, and fine arts. His works have been highly acclaimed both inside and outside of Japan. These include the Katsura Imperial Villa series, which captures traditional Japanese architecture from a modern perspective that draws from the Bauhaus; and his works that capture the people and cityscapes of Chicago and Tokyo, which became his lifework. His insatiable curiosity about the essence of his subjects and the possibilities of photography, along with his rigorous aesthetic of printing through meticulous darkroom work, shine even brighter in today's digital world.

The year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of Ishimoto Yasuhiro's birth. To commemorate this, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, and The Museum of Art, Kochi will together mount the largest ever series of retrospective exhibitions tracing Ishimoto's path. This exhibition is centred on the first half of Ishimoto's artistic career, and with "tradition and modernity" as the jumping-off point, it focuses on his penetrating gaze into a variety of subjects. With "the city as a living organism" as its theme, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum has selected works from the middle of his career to his later years to focus on his unique perspective of the city. These two exhibitions will reveal the full picture of Ishimoto's career from many viewpoints. The culminating exhibition will be held at The Museum of Art, Kochi from January to March of next year.