Sutezo Otono

rdf:langString Sutezo Otono

rdf:langString Sutezo Otono ()

rdf:langString Sutezo Otono

rdf:langString Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan

rdf:langString Photographer

rdf:langString Sutezo Otono (音納 捨三, Otono Sutezō) (1905–1988) was a Japanese photographer noted for his photograms and work in other techniques that were avant-garde at the time. Otono was born in 1905 in Osaka. After graduating from Osaka City Public East Commercial High School, he started working at the Yamaguchi Bank. In 1930, he began to participate in activities of the Tampei Photography Club and various other Japanese photography salons. A curator of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Akiko Okatsuka, notes that “Otono Sutezo and Ei-Q stand out among the many Japanese photographers who explored the possibilities of the photogram technique.” Otono worked with these avant-garde photography techniques before World War II; and Okatsuka expands on Otono’s impact on the legacy of amateur photography clubs that would develop later in the Kansai area: As the Showa era began, photographers became interested in techniques that made use of the distinctive characteristics of the photograph – photomontage, photograms, and infrared photography, for instance. A steady stream of experimental photographs with new content appeared. . . . Three [photographers] who deserve special note were NAKAYAMA Iwata, OTONO Sutezo and KOISHI Kiyoshi. The foundation on which they build their vast bodies of work were the amateur photographers’ clubs found throughout the country, such as the Naniwa Shashin Club, the Tanpei Shashin Club and the Ashiya Camera Club in the Kansai. . . . His works have been shown internationally at Paris Photo and are included in the permanent collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art.