Contents

Kei Orihara

Orihara was born in 1948 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She had studied at the Faculty of Letters of Chuo University (Tokyo),^[1] and became keen on photography via a photography club there.^[2] After graduation, she worked for some time in publishing before setting out in 1977 as a freelance photographer, concentrating on magazine work,^[1] for which routine assignments included photographs of people being interviewed for magazines, and portraits of poets for the magazine Gendai-shi techō (現代詩手帖).^[2]

Orihara held her first solo exhibition, Soul South, in 1977.^[1] An early project was of people sitting in Tokyo trains.^[3] From 1979 to 1981 she lived in New York City, where she became close friends with a model named Jana; photographs of Jana's everyday life were exhibited in Japan in 1982, turned into a feature within the Japanese edition of Playboy,^{[n 1]} and into a book (Jana: The New York Girl) published in 1984.^[1] This was notable both for being a woman's portrait of a woman and for Orihara's free discussion in the texts of her perceptions of the differences and similarities between her model and herself.^[4]

In 1984 Orihara was noted for her success in interior portraits with natural and ambient light; she avoided flash.^[2]

Various photography exhibitions followed, while Orihara's major work was portrait photography for magazines, for example accompanying a series written by Amy YamadainMen's Non-no. In 2000 she was living in Tokyo.^[1]

In 1999 Orihara published Photo Love, a book of her writing about life as a photographer, illustrated with photographs. It appeared during something of a boom in photography among young people; but Orihara had noted that the concerns of many of the young photographers were private, and she hoped to encourage people to see photography as a tool with which they could relate to other people and to society.^[4]

In keeping with Orihara's interest in people who at first seemed different from herself, she took on projects on young, third-generation Koreans in Japan,^[4] and people at a Roman Catholic church in Sotome, Nagasaki Prefecture.^[4][5]

Orihara turned to townscapes, photographing the port cities of Kobe, Kita-Kyūshū and Hakodate,^[6] and the rooftop water towers of New York City (especially those of the traditional, barrel-like construction); the latter appeared both for adults interested in photography^[7] and as a photobook for children.

From 2004 until 2010, Orihara lived in Athens, Georgia; she then moved to New York. From July 2011 until March 2016, she ran a photoblog of scenes in and near Sunnyside, Queens.^[8]

• Soul South. 1977.^[1]
• Jana (ジャナ). Minolta Photo Space, Tokyo, July 1982.^[9]
• Gogo no jōkyaku (午後の乗客). 1984.^[1]
• Homeless Town. 1989.^[1]
• Fukkatsu no mura (復活の村). Ginza Nikon Salon, November–December 1993.^[10]
• Water Towers. Konica Plaza, Tokyo, November 2002.^[11]
• Nyūyōku: Kyūsuitō no aru fūkei (ニューヨーク／給水塔のある風景) / Water Towers New York. Echigawamachi Bintemari no kan (Echigawa, Shiga), October–November 2003.^[12][13]
• Water Towers New York. Kyōmachi Gallery Yamada (Kyoto), January–February 2004.^[14]

Eleven photographs by Orihara of the Jana series and seven of the Gogo no jōkyaku (午後の乗客, afternoon passengers) series are in the collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.^[15]

• Jana: The New York girl (ジャナ The New York girl). Tokyo: Shueisha, 1983. ISBN 4087724573. Photobook, with essays, about a girl in New York, Atlanta, and Half Moon Bay. (in Japanese)
• Tai: Mana to midori no taichi (タイ マナと緑の大地). Sekai no kodomo-tachi, 24. Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 1988. A book for younger readers about children in Thailand. (in Japanese)
  • Thailand. Children of the World. Text by David K. Wright and MaryLee Knowlton. Milwaukee: Stevens, 1988. ISBN 1555322239. English version of the above. (in English)
  • T'ai: Menam e hŭrŭnŭn Mana ŭi kkum. Segye ŭi ŏrini 24. Seoul: Ungjin Ch'ulp'an Chusik Hoesa, 1991. Korean version of the above. (in Korean)
• Foto rabu (フォト ラブ) / Photo Love. Tokyo: Gentōsha, 1999. ISBN 4877282742. Book of essays about a life and career in photography. (in Japanese)
• Me ni shōgai no aru ko to issho ni (目に障害のある子といっしょに). Baria-furī no hon, 1. Text by Tsuneyuki Takeuchi (竹内恒之). Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 2000. ISBN 978-4-03-543210-4. Book for younger readers about blind people. (in Japanese)
• Shōgai no aru hito e no borantia katsudō (障害のある人へのボランティア活動). Baria-furī no hon, 9. Text by Toshiyuki Takizawa (瀧澤利行). Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 2000. ISBN 978-4-03-543290-6. Book for younger readers about volunteer work for the disabled. (in Japanese)
• "Shōgai"-tte nan darō? (「障害」ってなんだろう?). Baria-furī no hon, 10. Text by Masako Fujita (藤田雅子) and Eishi Yukumi (湯汲英史); photographs by Kei Orihara and others. Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 2000. ISBN 978-4-03-543300-2. Book for younger readers about disabilities. (in Japanese)
• Okujō no tongari bōshi (屋上のとんがり帽子) / Water Tanks in New York. September 2002 issue of the magazine Gekkan Takusan no fushigi (月刊たくさんのふしぎ). Tokyo: Fukuinkan Shoten, 2002. Reissued within the series Takusan no fushigi kessakushū. Tokyo: Fukuinkan Shoten, 2008. ISBN 978-4-8340-2300-8. Photographs and text by Orihara. For younger readers. About the rooftop water towers of New York City. (in Japanese)^{[n 2]}

• Joel Sackett, ed. Ten on Tokyo: An Exhibition of Leading Japanese Photographers. Los Angeles: Perpetua Press, 1988.

• Orihara's blog (in Japanese)
• Soul South: Photographs by Kei Orihara — African-American portraits in the Deep South, 1977