Shin Yanagisawa: 1958-2008

Born 1936 in Tokyo, Shin Yanagisawa belonged to the remarkable generation of Japanese photographers whose innovative work during the sixties and seventies has shaped our image of Japan to this day – as a country caught between tradition and modernity.

Yanagisawa studied at the renowned Tokyo College of Photography in Shibuya before working as a freelance photographer. In his work he was drawn to capturing changing landscapes, the rawness of nature and the urban reality of big cities. With his camera he bore down on life itself, be it by showing backstage eroticism in nightclubs, or following a winter love who we can only imagine must have been of a unique significance.

His series Traces of the City (1965-1970), presented as a solo exhibition in Tokyo in 1979, reflects the atmosphere of an entire generation. The artist was also represented in numerous group exhibitions, including the famous 15 Photographers Exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art.

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