Domon Ken: The Master of Japanese Realism

An unsurpassed master of postwar Japanese realist photography and a reference for amateur photographers even today.

The breadth and diversity of this Renaissance man’s oeuvre reveals untiring attention to and interest in the culture, art, faces, society, and politics of his country. With over 70,000 pictures taken between the 1920s and the 1980s, Domon Ken is considered the supreme master of Japanese photography as well as the main exponent of realism as the only approach possible. Over the years he honed his craft, shifting from propaganda photography during the war to photography as a life’s mission, in search of his own Japan: a fascinating and silent Japan of ancient temples, Buddhist sculptures, puppet theaters (where he took refuge during the war); the seductive and expressive faces of celebrities alongside the modest ones of street urchins; the poorest Japan of mining villages; and finally his most disturbing and modern work, portraying Hiroshima and its unhealed wounds.