Artist Profile

Kazuo KITAI

Kazuo Kitai, born in China in 1944, is best known for his protest photography of the 1960s and 1970s. He earned the prestigious Ihei Kimura Memorial Award for Photography for his work “Mura-e”, a year-long documentation of Japan’s rural life. In the 1980s, he concerned himself with the citizens of Osaka and Tokyo (”Shinsekai Monogatari”, “Funabashi Monogatari”). Recent years have seen him publish a regular column in Nippon Camera magazine (”Walking with Leica”) as well as a rise of public interest in his work both in Japan and overseas.

Seiryu INOUE

Born in 1931 in Tosa, Kochi Prefecture.
Inoue became apprentice to Takeji Iwamiya in Osaka in 1951. In 1961 he received the “Japan Photography Critics Newcomer Award” for his work “Kamagasaki”. In 1988 he died in an accident while photographing in the Amami Oshima Islands.