KITAJIMA Keizo
Founder of Photographers’ Gallery / Senior Photographer
JP
Keizo Kitajima was born in Nagano, Japan, in 1954. He Lives and works in Tokyo. In 1975, he participated in Daido Moriyama’s class at the Workshop, a photography school in Tokyo. In the next year, he created the gallery CAMP with Moriyama and others. In 1979, Kitajima exhibited a series "Photo Express Tokyo No. 1 - No. 12", the earliest representative work at CAMP. From the late 1970s through the 1980s, Kitajima photographed many cities around the world, and his snapshot photography, which is filled with the photographer’s enthusiasm for capturing people the streets, obtained wide critical acclaim.
Kitajima’s early works, including ‘Koza 1975-1980’, ‘Tokyo 1979’, ‘New York 1981-1982’ and ‘Eastern Europe 1983-1984’, reached its sophisticated culmination with his photobook A. D. 1991. But, after ‘U.S.S.R. 1991’ in which Kitajima photographed people of the Soviet Union right before its collapse in frontal poses regardless of whether the model is on the street or in the room, he drastically changed his approach, abandoning the snapshot aesthetics. Since 1992, Kitajima has been on-going two series simultaneously: One being the series entitled ‘PLACES’ (now “UNTITLED RECORDS”)in which he uses a view camera to capture urban landscapes such as those in Shinjuku, Tokyo, for example where few people are visible in the pictures. The other is the series entitled ‘PORTRAITS’ in which he photographs frontal portraits of the same people in his studio over years. He has exhibited and published extensively throughout his career. In 2001, he founded the Photographers’ Gallery in Tokyo. Currently, he exhibits a series called "UNTITLE RECORDS" continuously and at the same time publishes photo books.
He recieved the Photographic Society of Japan Award of Newcomer (1981), the 8th Kimura Ihei Award（1983）, the 32nd INA Nobuo Award (2007), Photographic Society of Japan Awards for Lifetime Achievement Award (2009), the 26th Higashikawa Award for Domestic Photographer (2010), and The Sagamihara Photo Awards (2012).