Imai Hisae

IMAI Hisae was born in 1931, the eldest daughter of a family running Imai Photo Studio in Higashi-Nakano, Tokyo. Her father, Yasumichi, was head of the photography department at Ginza Matsuya, and she graduated from Bunka Gakuin in 1952. In 1956, she had the first solo exhibition, Daydreams, at the Matsushima Gallery in Ginza. She employed the mechanism of photography to delicately create a free and open world that was both imaginative and literary. In an era of realist photography, she was criticized at the time for her avant-garde style, but she quickly became a popular photographer. She continued to receive high praise for poetic photographic works such as A Donkey, the King, and Myself (1959 Newcomer's Award, Japan Photographic Critics Society) and After Ophelia (1960 Japan Photo Critics Association newcomer award), and was in the midst of a busy commercial career when she was involved in a traffic accident in 1962. Although she survived, she lost her eyesight for a year and a half. After regaining her sight, she was deeply moved by the vibrantly alive figures of horses she saw in a movie and enraptured by the spiritual power of horses.