Minayoshi Takada
Japanese photographer associated with avant-garde photography in Nagoya
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Minayoshi Takada (高田皆義, Takada Minayoshi; 1899-1982) was a Japanese photographer from Nagoya.[1] He has been described as one of the figures who helped drive modernist and constructivist photography in Japan.[1] In the late 1930s, he was active in Nagoya's avant-garde photographic milieu, and after World War II he co-founded the photographic collective VIVI with Kansuke Yamamoto, Keiichirō Gotō, Yoshifumi Hattori, and others.[2][3] Takada also published the first issue of the group's bulletin CARNET DE VIVI in June 1948.[4]
- Modernist and constructivist photography in Japan
- Co-founding VIVI
- Publishing CARNET DE VIVI
Early career and prewar activity
A local history of Nagoya photography records that Takada exhibited in the third exhibition of the Aiyu Photography Club as a non-member and joined the club afterward.[5] In Stojković's account of the Nagoya round-table meeting on avant-garde photography held on 29 December 1938 and published in the February 1939 issue of Kameraman, Takada and Niryū Nagata were identified as "editors", placing Takada among the local figures involved in contemporary debates over zen'ei shashin ("avant-garde photography").[2] The Nagoya City Art Museum annual report for the exhibition "The Story of the 'Capital of Photography': A History of Photography Movements in Nagoya, 1911-1972" also lists several of Takada's prewar works as having been reproduced in Kameraman, including Woman (1937), At the Seaside (1938), Summer Woman (1939), and still-life studies from 1938-39.[6]
VIVI and postwar avant-garde photography
After the war, Takada became one of the founding members of VIVI, a Nagoya-based avant-garde photography group formed in 1947 with Yamamoto, Gotō, Hattori, and others.[3] MEM's exhibition summary on the Nagoya avant-garde describes the formation of VIVI as part of the revival of avant-garde photography in the city under postwar conditions.[3] Through VIVI, Takada became part of the same postwar Nagoya network that linked Yamamoto to a renewed phase of experimental photographic practice.[3]
CARNET DE VIVI
Takada published the first issue of CARNET DE VIVI in June 1948.[4] The Nagoya City Art Museum annual report records the item as VIVI-sha's bulletin, issued by Takada in a four-page folded booklet format.[4] The bulletin provides documentary evidence of Takada's role in the publishing activity of the group as well as its exhibition activity.[4]
Position in Nagoya photography
Takada is relevant to the history of Photography in Nagoya as a figure linking the late-1930s avant-garde milieu in the city with the postwar activities of VIVI.[2][3] His career is also relevant to accounts of avant-garde photography in Japan, especially those that connect Nagoya-based photographers such as Kansuke Yamamoto to broader histories of experimental and Surrealist-inflected photography.[1][3]
