Isamu Noguchi
イサム・ノグチ
- Birth Year
- 1909
- Death Year
- 1990
- Date
- 1950 (printed in 1960)
- Technique, Material, Format
- gelatin silver print
- Dimension
- 32.5 x 21.8 cm
- Category
- Photograph or Moving Image by JapanesePhotographer/Artist
- Inventory Number
- 84-PHJ-334
From the 1930s, Domon Ken worked as a photojournalist covering news in many locations. At the same time, he wrote a list on a fusuma (papered sliding door) in his home of all the people he liked and wanted to make portraits of, and whenever he got opportunities to do so, he would take them. In 1953, the portraits he had accumulated over some 15 years were compiled in a photo book titled Fubo (meaning “appearance”).
The book includes this photograph of sculptor Isamu Noguchi, then in his mid-40s and at the height of his creative powers. Noguchi’s eyes make it a striking image—his concentrated gaze seems to convey his directness and strength of will. Domon’s realism, seeking to capture his subject’s “appearance” directly without theatrical embellishment, is clearly evident.
(MATSUNAGA Shintaro)