Seiji Kurata

is a Japanese photographer.

Career

Kurata graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1968. [1968: Iizawa, "Tōkyō Shashin," p.260; also "Sanjūroku fotogurafāzu," p.11. According to the blurb on the front and back flaps of Kurata's "Japan," 1976.] He taught in secondary school and worked in oils, printmaking, and experimental movies. ["Sanjūroku fotogurafāzu," p.11.]

He practised under Daidō Moriyama in an independent photography workshop in 1976. [Wākushoppu Shashin-juku, taught by Shōmei Tōmatsu, Nobuyoshi Araki, Masahisa Fukase, Eikoh Hosoe, Noriaki Yokosuka, as well as Moriyama. Sources: Iizawa, p.143; "Sanjūroku fotogurafāzu," p.11.]

Kurata won the fifth Kimura Ihei Award in 1980 for his first book, "Flash Up." For the black-and-white photographs here, Kurata used flash and a medium format camera, [The array of specific hardware used is listed at the back of the book; it does include a 35mm SLR camera as well.] resulting in a detailed portrait of a world of "bōsōzoku," gangsters, rightists, strippers, transvestites, and so on: as Parr and Badger point out, these are old subjects; but in his "highly polished, detailed" work, Kurata "has an unerring instinct for pictures that suggest stories". [Parr and Badger, 305.] "Photo Cabaret" and "80's Family" continued in this direction. This Japanese work of Kurata's is anthologized in his later volume "Japan."

Kurata won the PSJ award in 1992. A long stay in Mongolia in 1994 led to the book "Toransu Ajia," which continued color work of the Asian mainland started with "Dai-Ajia."

Prints of Kurata's photographs are in the permanent collections of ICP (New York), the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. [TPO Photo School profile.]

olo exhibitions

*"Street Photo Random Tokyo 1975–79". Nikon Salon, Tokyo and Osaka, 1979.
*"Photo Cabaret". Doi Photo Plaza, Shibuya, Tokyo, 1983.
*"Street Photo Random Tokyo 2". Nikon Salon, Tokyo, 1986.
*"Great Asia". Minolta Photo Space, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 1990.
*"Eros Quest". Mole, Tokyo, 1993.
*"Trans Asia". Nikon Salon, Tokyo; Visual Arts School, Osaka, 1995.
*"Tokyo: Theatrical Megalopolis". O. K. Harris Gallery, New York, 1995.
*"Trans Market: Tokyo Kanda vegetable and fruit market". Nikon Salon, Tokyo and Osaka, 1996.
*Japan from the 70s to the 90s. Kodak Photo Salon, Tokyo, 1999.
*"Quest for Eros". Galleria Prova, Tokyo, 1999.

Books by Kurata

Following a title in Japanese script, an italicized roman-letter title is one provided on or in the book itself; a non-italicized roman-letter title is a mere gloss of the original title.
*ja icon "Flash Up: Street Photo Random Tokyo 1975–1979." Tokyo: Byakuya Shobō, 1980. Includes one essay in English but also several in Japanese only; the captions too are only in Japanese.
*"Foto Kyabarē" (nihongo2|フォト・キャバレー) / "Photo Cabaret." Tokyo: Byakuya Shobō, 1982. ISBN 4-938256-39-4.
*"Dai-Ajia" (nihongo2|大亜細亜, Great Asia). Tokyo: IBC, 1990. ISBN 4-87198-807-4.
*"80's Family: Street Photo Random Japan." Tokyo: JICC Shuppankyoku, 1991. ISBN 4-7966-0079-5.
*"Toransu-Ajia" (nihongo2|トランスアジア, Trans-Asia). Tokyo: Ōta Shuppan, 1995. ISBN 4-87233-218-0.
*"Japan" (nihongo2|ジャパン) / "Japan." Tokyo: Shinchōsha, Photo Musée, 1998. ISBN 4-10-602433-0. The captions are in English.
*"Kuesuto fō Erosu" (nihongo2|クエスト・フォー・エロス) / "Quest for Eros." Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1998. ISBN 4-10-430201-5.

Notes

Links and sources

*ja icon Iizawa Kōtarō. "Tōkyō shashin" (nihongo2|東京写真) / "Tokyo Photography." Tokyo: Inax, 1995. ISBN 4-87275-059-4. Despite the English subtitle, all in Japanese. Photographs by and essays on Kineo Kuwabara, William Klein, Masatoshi Naitō, Shigeo Gochō, Nobuyoshi Araki, Daidō Moriyama, Ryūji Miyamoto, Kyōichi Tsuzuki, and Yurie Nagashima, as well as Kurata.
*ja icon [http://www.pariseiga.com/photoschool/profile/kurata_seiji.html Profile] at TPO Photo School.
*ja icon [http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_j/photos/0301/photog.html Review of "Toransu-Ajia"] .
*Ono, Philbert. " [http://www.photojpn.org/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=114 Kurata Seiji] ". Brief note at PhotoGuide Japan.
*Parr, Martin, and Gerry Badger. "The Photobook" 1. London: Phaidon, 2004. ISBN 0-7148-4285-0.
*ja icon "Sanjūroku fotogurafāzu: Kimura Ihei Shashinshō no sanjūnen" (nihongo2|36フォトグラファーズ：木村伊兵衛写真賞の30年, 36 photographers: 30 years of the Kimura Ihei Award). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun, 2005. ISBN 4-02-272303-3. With sample photographs from each of the award-winners.
*ja icon "Shashinshū o yomu: Besuto 338 kanzen gaido" (nihongo2|写真集を読む：ベスト338完全ガイド, Reading photobooks: A complete guide to the best 338). Tokyo: Metarōgu, 1997. ISBN 4-8398-2010-4. P.172. Review of "80's Family."