Ikko Narahara was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1931. He studied law at Chuo University (graduated in 1954) and art history at the graduate school of Waseda University (graduated in 1959). Narahara made his debut while he was still a graduate student at Waseda University with “Human Land,” a collection of photographs of life on Hashima Island in Nagasaki Prefecture. In 1955, he joined the innovative artist group Jitsuzaisha (Real Existence). This group was headed by Masuo Ikeda and Ay-O, and it also gave Narahara the opportunity to deepen his connection to Shuzo Takiguchi, as well as other artists like Tatsuo Ikeda and On Kawara. At the same time, he also came to know Shomei Tomatsu and Eikoh Hosoe. In 1959, together with other photographers, these three formed the independent photo agency VIVO, which dissolved in 1961.
Ikko Nakahara consistently produced photographs distinguished by their independent perspective. Under the general theme of “Sights of Civilization”, Narahara photographed a wide variety of inhabited spaces with identifiable categories such as the city and its inhabitants, monasteries and prisons.
Motivated by his urban archeological interest in the street, Narahara has shot intersections of Broadway with a fish-eye lens, and made a collage of four images: it resulted in the work “Broadway”, reinterpretation of the Broadway space, capturing it from the ground to the sky.
Narahara’s solo exhibitions include “The Sky in my Hands,” the Shimane Art Museum (2010); “Mirror of Space and Time: Synchronicity,” the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2004); “Ikko Narahara,” Maison Européenne de La Photographie, Paris (2002-2003) and “Human Land,” Matsuya Gallery, Tokyo (1956).
Narahara is the recipient of The Medal with Purple Ribbon (1996); the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award (1986) for “Where Time Has Stopped”; the Mainichi Arts Award (1968); the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture’s Art Encouragement Prize (1968); the Japan Photo Critics Association Artist Award (1967) and the Japan Photo Critics Association Newcomer’s Award (1958).
