Historical Studies Program, Asian Studies Program, Art History and Visual Culture Program, and Japanese Present
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
“I am a Woman Photographer”: Photography in Modern Japan and Yamazawa Eiko’s Quotidian Practices of Refusal
Online Event
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
A Talk with Kelly Midori McCormick, Assistant Professor of History at UBC
The Japanese photographer Yamazawa Eiko’s (1899–1995) life history can be read as explicit forms of refusal: owning her own commercial portrait studios, running a community photo school, dedicating herself to abstract still-life photography in rejection of the photo-realism boom, and destroying all of her personal archive. Focusing on the many “refusals” around which Yamazawa built her life, this talk approaches her work and life as an example of the possibilities for defiance within everyday practices. Yamazawa’s life lived as a refusal of the “categories of the dominant” within the photography world, social norms, and regulatory power of art critics and business leaders are an example of striving for a future not yet lived by women photographers in mid-20th century Japan. From acting as a mentor and model to many young women photographer-entrepreneurs to routinely destroying her personal archive of the evidence of her working process, Dr. McCormick explores how Yamazawa created the conditions necessary to make a life through photography as a woman in Japan from the 1930s to 1970s.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://bard.zoom.us/j/88678329023.
Time: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Online Event