Kobayashi Yūshi

Yushi Kobayashi (1898–1988) was an avant-garde photographer based in Kyoto. After graduating from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now the Tokyo University of the Arts), he moved back to Kyoto in the mid-1920s to work at his uncle's Kobayashi Photo Studio, which he eventually inherited. He joined the Kyoto Photographic Society (KPS), founded in 1925, and became one of the central members of the group. After gaining recognition for his pictorial portraits in series such as Suda (1922), Kobayashi turned to more experimental approaches in the 1930s, influenced by surrealism and abstract photography. Like Noboru Ueki, Yushi Kobayashi was a rare figure who was able to combine commercial studio photography with boundary-pushing avant-garde experimentation.

*This text was contributed by Mitsuhiro Wakayama.
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