An exhibition entitled The Look of Things: Japanese Photography around ‘Provoke’ spotlights artists who participated in the Vivo cooperative from 1959 to 1961, including Ikkō Narahara, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, Akira Satō and Kikuji Kawada. PhotoEspaña festival runs until 31 October Photograph: Collection Per Amor a l’Art

1. Rising sons: the radical photography of postwar
Japan in pictures
Between 1957 and 1972, Japanese photography was revolutionised ... twice! These images spotlight
the Vivo artists and the magazine Provoke, with its motto: rough, blurred, out of focus
Main image: Ordeal by Roses by Eikoh Hosoe, 1961. Photograph: Eikoh Hosoe/Collection Per Amor al´Art
Wed 9 Sep 2020 07.00 BST
The Trip by Shōmei Tōmatsu, 1959
An exhibition entitled The Look of Things: Japanese Photography around ‘Provoke’ spotlights artists who
participated in the Vivo cooperative from 1959 to 1961, including Ikkō Narahara, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Eikoh
Hosoe, Akira Satō and Kikuji Kawada. PhotoEspaña festival runs until 31 October
Photograph: Collection Per Amor a l’Art
Domains by Ikkō Narahara, 1956-1958
The Vivo group was inspired by the Magnum Photos agency and had the shared goal of forging a critical
vein of photography, in contrast to established conventions, by exploring more subjective ways of
understanding the medium of photography

2. Photograph: Collection Per Amor a l’Art
Lucky Strike, The Map by Kikiuji Kawada, 1959-65
What the photographer saw through the lens was now an abstract and concrete space open to
experimentation as the artist’s subjective expression
Photograph: Collection Per Amor a l’Art

3. Cyclopean Eye by Akira Sato, c.1960
Sato experimented with exploring psychology using the techniques of fashion photography
Photograph: Collection Per Amor a l’Art

4. Dancing Oroku by Toyoko Tokiwa, 1954-1956
The Vivo group aimed to reflect on the relations between language and photography, and between art and
political resistance, viewing photography as an alternative language
Photograph: Museum of Yokohoma Urban History