Studio Equis

(b. Yamagata, 1945-)

Selected Works

A selection of images by this artist can be viewed here

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Hiroh Kikai

Kikai studied studied philosophy under Sadayoshi Fukuda at Hosei University in Tokyo. He began to take photographs in 1969 when the influential editor Shoji Yamagishi showed him photographs by Diane Arbus. Kikai worked for Doi Technical Photo in Tokyo from 1973 to 1976 in order to improve his darkroom skills and then became a freelance photographer in 1984. Living close to Asakusa in Tokyo, he often spent time there and the area became the location for a series of portraits that he has been shooting for over 30 years. Kikai’s other photographic subjects include working and residential neighbourhoods in and near Tokyo, and street scenes in India and Turkey.

Kikai has had solo exhibitions across Japan, in Kraków, Poland, and in San Francisco. His prints are held by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and the Center for Creative Photography (University of Arizona, Tucson). In 2011 an exhibition of his Tokyo work was held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.