For the first time in over 20 years, Hamiltons presented the work of esteemed photographer, Hiro. This 2016 retrospective of Hiro’s photographs was just a small selection from his diverse and dynamic oeuvre and displayed Hiro, as he is widely regarded, as a photographer unlike any other.
‘The world of Hiro’s photographs, bordered by a shoreline, is unlike any place you have ever been… Hiro’s world encompasses the separate domains of fashion, portraiture, still-life and studies of the human body. His eye scrutinises men and machines with equal focus.’ (Mark Holborn)
Known for the originality of his photographs, Hiro’s photographic career began at Harper’s Bazaar in New York as a fashion, still-life and portrait photographer. Shortly after arriving in America from Japan in 1954, with his childhood memories of The Orient, which have a place in the genesis of his work, Hiro landed an apprenticeship in Richard Avedon’s studio. Avedon soon sent Hiro to legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch after he proved too talented not to work independently, and within a few years Hiro had risen to extraordinary fashion photography heights. In January 1982 American Photographer magazine devoted their entire issue to Hiro, asking the question “Is this Man America’s Greatest Photographer?” Hiro began working under Brodovitch’s direction in 1956 and in 1963 he became the only photographer under contract at Harper’s Bazaar, a position he kept for the next ten years. Now in his 80’s, although no longer under contract, Hiro continues to take assignments with the magazine. Hiro lived up to Brodovitch’s dictum, ‘If you look in your camera and see something you’ve seen before, don’t click the shutter.’ Richard Avedon described Hiro as ‘a visitor all his life’, enabling Hiro, neither completely Eastern or Western, to document both cultures in his work with a perception that only comes from a certain detachment.
Hiro, Salt Flats, Wendover, Utah, July 23, 1973 © Estate of Y. Hiro Wakabayashi
