was a Japanese monthly photographic magazine, published from April 1926 until July 2020, when it was discontinued due to declining circulation.

History and profile

The first issue was that for April 1926.During the twentieth century, Japanese monthly magazines routinely came out in the month before the cover date, or even the month before that. It was from the outset published by Asahi Shinbun-sha, publisher of the newspaper ''

Asahi Shinbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...

.'' The headquarters was in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. From the January 1941 issue, it merged with the magazines ''Geijutsu Shashin Kenkyū'' (, "Technique Photograph Studies") and ''Shōzō Shashin Kenkyū'' (, "Portrait Photograph Studies"). Publication was suspended with the April 1942 issue. Publication resumed after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

with the October 1949 issue. Its cover employed a monochrome portrait of a girl by

Ihei Kimura was a Japanese photographer, known for his portrayal of Tokyo and Akita Prefecture. Life and work Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku (now Taitō-ku), Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified whe ...

, who would become a major contributor. ''Asahi Camera'' attempted to satisfy interests in all areas of photography, with short portfolios in monochrome and color by established and new photographers (most but not all of them Japanese), contests for readers, articles about technique, and (accounting for much of the magazine's bulk) news and tests of equipment. The April 2006 issue, for example, had over four hundred pages (many of them advertising, but the great majority editorial) with five or more pages devoted to work by each of ten photographers, the announcement of the latest

Kimura Ihei Award The is a Japanese photography award. The award has been given every year since 1975 (except 1983) by the Asahi Shimbun Company, publisher of ''Asahi Shimbun'' and the magazine '' Asahi Camera'', in honor of the photographer Ihei Kimura was a J ...

, articles about equipment (new, old and even future), contests, and much else. Even if one considers only its uninterrupted years of publication, from 1949, ''Asahi Camera'' was the oldest surviving Japanese photography magazine. Like any magazine that attempts to satisfy people with very different interests, it was sometimes criticized for not serving any of them particularly well, but its equipment reviews appeared to be as rigorous as any and it continued to attract some of the best photographers for its portfolios. Like many photographic magazines, many of its covers somehow happened to show conventionally attractive young women (sometimes nude), and the overall impression it gave was unadventurous, but daring was a rare commodity in the Japanese magazine market and ''Asahi Camera'' did display work that cannot be regarded as at all commercial. Since the demise of ''

Camera Mainichi is a Japanese monthly magazine of photography that started in June 1954 and ceased publication in April 1985.Mari Shirayama, "Major Photography Magazines", pp. 378–385 of Anne Wilkes Tucker, ed., ''The History of Japanese Photography'' ...

'' in 1985, the only rival as a magazine attempting to cater for all photographic interests became ''

Nippon Camera is a Japanese photography magazine, published between 1950 and 2021. ''Nippon Camera'' started in March 1950 as a bimonthly magazine, published by Kōgeisha (Tokyo) as the successor to the book series ''Amachua Shashin Sōsho'' (1948–49). I ...

.'' From its 1926 start until around 1932, in addition to the ''

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

'' title, the magazine was prominently titled in English, ''Asahi Camera: The Japanese Journal of Photography''. A shortened version, ''Asahi Camera'', continued as an alternative title until late in the twentieth century but then was written "ASAHICAMERA".

Notes

External links

Publisher's site
1926 establishments in Japan 2020 disestablishments in Japan Asahi Shimbun Company Defunct magazines published in Japan Magazines established in 1926 Magazines disestablished in 2020 Magazines published in Tokyo Monthly magazines published in Japan Photography magazines published in Japan {{italic title