I-Photography (Shi-shashin) refers to a Japanese photographic mode that emerged in the 1970s.
A Japanese photographic mode that took shape from the 1970s, taking family, lovers, rooms, the body, memory, and death as its subjects — not as private records but as works that turn the distance between seeing and living itself into form.
I-Photography's core was not the private subject matter — family, lovers, the body — but the claim that the distance between seeing and living could itself become photographic form, turning subjectivity into method rather than confession.
I-Photography (Shi-shashin) refers to a Japanese photographic mode that emerged in the 1970s.*1
On this site, photographers connected to I-Photography (Shi-shashin) appear mainly from 1890–1910s to 1980–1990s, often overlapping with Typological Photography and Documentary.*2
I-Photography (Shi-shashin) often overlaps with Typological Photography and Documentary. Reading those pages together makes it easier to see where method, institution, or critical language begins to diverge.*7
Tokuko Ushioda is a photographer who has used refrigerators, books, and the light and household objects left in the rooms of Gotokuji to photograph the time of those close to …
Mayumi Hosokura works with nudes, portraits, plants, minerals, neon, selfies, and sculpture through color, photobooks, digital collage, and exhibition space. Through NEW SKIN …
Sakiko Nomura is a photographer who has brought together male nudes, night, flowers, rooms, the sea, and scenes of travel through dense blacks and the sequence of the photobook …
He turned his honeymoon into a self-published book and established the term "I-photography" (shishashin). He invented the editorial gesture of connecting the boundaries between …
Born in 1934 and deceased in 2012, Masahisa Fukase is known for intensely personal photography centered on family, his wife Yoko, solitude, and psychic collapse. His major works …
Shigeo Gocho (1946–1983) was a photographer born in Kamo, Niigata Prefecture. He studied with Kiyoji Otsuji at Kuwasawa Design School and published Days (1971), SELF AND OTHERS (1977), and FAMILIAR STREET SCENES (1981). Working with frontal portraiture and street snapshots, he designed his photobooks’ spreads, sequences, and printing instructions.
Sources — museums, archives, and specialist literature (listed individually in § SRC on this page)
Text written by — AI
Structure & editing — the editor of Photo Coordinates
Source gathering and the writing of the text are done by AI; the structure and editing are handled by the site’s editor. Factual details are given a final check by the editor using AI, but errors may remain. If you need accuracy, please consult the primary sources listed in § SRC on each page.