is a California-based Japanese photographer. His books include ''I See Angels Every Day'' and ''Findings.''

Life and work

Born in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, Japan, in 1951, Watanabe graduated from the Department of Photography of

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

in 1975 and moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a production coordinator for Japanese television commercials and later co-founded a Japanese coordination services company. He obtained an MBA from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1993, but two years later his earlier interest in photography revived; from 2000 he has worked full-time at photography. After five self-published books, Watanabe's first to be published conventionally was ''I See Angels Every Day,'' monochrome portraits of the patients and other scenes within San Lázaro psychiatric hospital in

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

, Ecuador. This won the 2007 Photo City Sagamihara award for Japanese professional photographers. In 2005, a portfolio of his work was featured in Nueva Luz photographic journal, volume 10#3. In 2007 Watanabe won a "Critical Mass" award from Photolucida that allowed publication of his monograph ''Findings.'' In 2008, his work of North Korea won Santa Fe Center Project Competition First Prize, and the book titled "Ideology of Paradise" was published in Japan. He was invited and participated in commission projects such as "Real Venice" in 2010 (its exhibition was a program in 2011 Venice Biennale), "Bull City Summer" in 2013, and "The Art of Survival, Enduring Turmoil of Tule Lake" in 2014. Watanabe's works are in the permanent collections of the

Houston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

, and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Publications

*''Veiled Observations and Reflections.'' Hiroshi Watanabe (self-published), West Hollywood, Calif.: 2002. *''Faces.'' West Hollywood, Calif.: Hiroshi Watanabe, 2002–2005. **1. ''San Lazaro Psychiatric Hospital.'' 2003. **2. ''Kabuki Players.'' 2003. **3. ''Ena Bunraku.'' 2005. **4. ''Noh Masks of Naito Clan.'' 2005. *''Watakushi wa mainichi, tenshi o mite iru'' () / ''I See Angels Every Day.'' Mado-sha, Tokyo, Japan: 2007. *''Findings.'' Photolucida, Portland, OR: 2007. . *''Paradaisu ideorogī'' () / ''Ideology in Paradise.'' Mado-sha, Tokyo, Japan: 2008. *''Suo Sarumawashi.'' Photo-Eye, Santa Fe, N.M., 2009. . *''Love Point.'' Toseisha, Tokyo, Japan: 2010. *''Love Point.'' One Picture Book #66, Nazraeli Press, Portland, OR: 2010. . *''The Day the Dam Collapses.'' Daylight Books, Hillsborough, NC & Tosei-sha Publishing Co., Ltd, Tokyo, Japan: 2014. *''Kwaidan, Stories and Studies of Strange Things'', photographs by Hiroshi Watanabe, Unicorn Publishing Group, LLP, London, UK: 2019

Notes

External links

Watanabe's site
* Hiroshi Watanabe o
En Foco
*Records, Shawn.

. ''40 Watt.'' A review of ''Findings'', generously illustrated with photographs.

Fotophile.com review of Watanabe's exhibition in Austin, Texas. *Hiroshi Watanabe's exhibition: "Comedy of Duble Meaning" at Takeda Art Co ww.takeda-bijyutu.com*With My Own Eyes, 180 magazine 08/200

*Depicting ideology's weight, D.K. Row, The Oregonian, 01/200

*Imagenesde la psiquiatria, 178. Veo ángeles todos los días. 201

*Financial Times, That sinking feeling FT.com, By Jan Dalley, 07/201

*Hiroshi Watanabe, Two Ways Lens, blog by Michael Werner 05/201

*Lenscratch, Hiroshi Watanabe and The Venice in Peril Project by Aline SmithsonJuly 17, 201

*The Japan Times, Photographer finds dignity in a dark time, by Ayako Mie, 08/2012

*PhotoBook Journal'','' book review by Douglas Stockdale, ''The Day the Dam Collapses,'' November, 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Hiroshi Japanese photographers Photography in Korea American portrait photographers Japanese emigrants to the United States Living people People from Sapporo Nihon University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)