Kohei Yoshiyuki
Japanese photographer (1946–2022)
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Kohei Yoshiyuki (吉行耕平, Yoshiyuki Kōhei; 1946 – 21 January 2022) was a Japanese photographer whose work included "Kōen" (公園, Park), photographs of people at night in sexual activities in parks in Tokyo.[1][2] Prints from The Park are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.[3][4][5][6][7] Examples from the series were included in the exhibition Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera at Tate Modern, SFMOMA and the Walker Art Center.[8]
Life and work
He attracted much attention in 1979 with his exhibition "Kōen" (公園, Park) at the Komai Gallery, Tokyo. The black and white photographs were presented in a book published in 1980 that is "nominally a soft-core voyeur's manual",[9] with photographs of people at night in sexual activities in Shinjuku and Yoyogi parks (both in Tokyo), mostly with unknown spectators around them.[10] The photographs were taken with a 35 mm camera, infrared film and a flash with a special filter.[6][11][12][13] Gerry Badger and others have commented on how the photographs raise questions about the boundaries between spectator, voyeur and participant.
Publications
- Dokyumento: Kōen (ドキュメント公園, Document: Park). Sebun Mukku 4. Tokyo: Sebun-sha, 1980.
- The Park. Stuttgart/Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2007. ISBN 978-3-7757-2085-4. With an introduction by Yossi Milo, an essay by Vince Aletti, and a transcript of an interview between Yoshiyuki and Nobuyoshi Araki.
- The Park. Santa Fe, NM: Radius; New York City: Yossi Milo, 2019. ISBN 9781942185482. With an introduction by Yossi Milo, an essay by Aletti, and a transcript of an interview between Yoshiyuki and Araki. Includes new images and documentary materials.
- Tōsatsu! Sunahama no koibito-tachi: Uwasa no rabu airando sennyū satsueiki (盗撮!砂浜の恋人たち:噂のラブアイランド潜入撮影記). Sandē-sha, 1983. ISBN 978-4-88203-022-5.
- Middonaito fōkasu: Mayonaka no sekigaisen tōsatsu (ミッドナイト・フォーカス:真夜中の赤外線盗撮). Tokyo: Tokuma, 1989. ISBN 978-4-19-503985-4.
- Yoshiyuki Kōhei shashinshū: Sekigai kōsen (吉行耕平写真集:赤外光線). Tokyo: Hokusōsha, 1992. ISBN 978-4-938620-36-3.
Collections
Yoshiyuki's work is held in the following permanent collections:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 2 prints (as of 2 February 2022)[4]
- Museum of Modern Art, New York: 4 prints (as of 2 February 2022)[3]
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco: 5 prints (as of 2 February 2022)[5]
- Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago: 4 prints (as of 2 February 2022)[6]
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: 2 prints (as of 2 February 2022)[7]
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Group exhibitions
- Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera, Tate Modern, London, 2010; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2010–12; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2011. Included work from The Park.[8][19]