Shōji Yamagishi

Who was Shōji Yamagishi?

Shōji Yamagishi was a photography critic, curator, and magazine editor.

Yamagishi entered Mainichi Shinbunsha in 1950. He started as a photographer, but was less successful at taking than at selecting photographs.

From 1963 until its July 1978 issue, Yamagishi edited Camera Mainichi, and was widely admired both for the quality of the photography he was able to present there and for the encouragement he gave to young photographers. During this period advertising was attracting some of the most talented photographers, and Yamagishi was particularly noted for the way in which he persuaded photographers working in advertising to pursue their own photographic interests during their spare time. As an editor, Yamagishi had the knack of evaluating and selecting photographs much faster than his peers.

Camera Mainichi was under much pressure from its publisher to make money, or at least not to lose money; the degree of pressure irked Yamagishi and was what caused him to resign.

Yamagishi worked with his friend John Szarkowski to mount two exhibitions of Japanese photography in New York. "New Japanese Photography" presented works by Ryōji Akiyama, Ken Domon, Masahisa Fukase, Eikō Hosoe, Tetsuya Ichimura, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Bishin Jūmonji, Kikuji Kawada, Daidō Moriyama, Masatoshi Naitō, Ikkō Narahara, Ken Ohara, Akihide Tamura, Shōmei Tōmatsu, and Hiromi Tsuchida. "Japan, a Self-Portrait" presented works by Ryōji Akiyama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Taiji Arita, Masahisa Fukase, Shinzō Hanabusa, Hiroshi Hamaya, Miyako Ishiuchi, Kikuji Kawada, Jun Morinaga, Daidō Moriyama, Ikkō Narahara, Kishin Shinoyama, Issei Suda, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Haruo Tomiyama, Hiromi Tsuchida, Shōji Ueda, Gashō Yamamura, and Hiroshi Yamazaki.