Kohei Yoshiyuki

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.

He died on 21 January 2022, at the age of 76.[14][15][16]

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:

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • The Park, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, 2007[17][18]

Group exhibitions

References

  1. ^ Gefter, Philip (23 September 2007). "Sex in the Park, and Its Sneaky Spectators". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  2. ^ Gefter, Philip (24 September 2007). "Kohei Yoshiyuki captures Japanese voyeurism". International Herald Tribune.
  3. ^ a b "Kohei Yoshiyuki". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Search the Collection". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Yoshiyuki, Kohei". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "Museum of Contemporary Photography". www.mocp.org. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  7. ^ a b "Works | Yoshiyuki Kohei | People | the MFAH Collections".
  8. ^ a b "Voyeurism, Exposed". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  9. ^ Parr, Martin; Badger, Gerry (7 October 2006). The Photobook: A History – Volume 2. Phaidon Press. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-7148-4433-6.
  10. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (20 September 2012). "Park life: how photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki caught voyeurs in the act". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  11. ^ "Infrared Sex Scenes from Japanese Photog Kohei Yoshiyuki". The Village Voice. 25 September 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Kohei Yoshiyuki and the voyeurs of Tokyo's parks". Numéro. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Juxtapoz Magazine - Best of 2013: Kohei Yoshiyuki's "The Park"". www.juxtapoz.com. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  14. ^ "In Memoriam : Kohei Yoshiyuki (1946-2022)". The Eye of Photography Magazine. 1 February 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  15. ^ Solomon, Tessa (31 January 2022). "Kohei Yoshiyuki, Voyeuristic Photographer with a Cult Following, Dies at 76". ARTnews. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  16. ^ "Addio a Kohei Yoshiyuki, il fotografo voyeur delle folli notti di Tokyo". La Stampa. 1 February 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  17. ^ "Kohei Yoshiyuki". The Guardian. 18 October 2007. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  18. ^ Sigler, Jeremy (3 October 2007). "Kohei Yoshiyuki". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  19. ^ "Art review: Exposed at Tate Modern". The Guardian. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  • "Down in the park: Yoshiyuki Kohei's nocturnes". English translation of an interview of Yoshiyuki by Nobuyoshi Araki, first published in Weekend Super in 1979. Aperture, no. 188, Fall 2007. Included within the press kit (PDF) for the Park exhibition at Yossi Milo Gallery.
  • Yossi Milo Gallery, The Park