IWAMORI Mitsuhiko Exhibition

Insects: On the move for 400 milion years

Jul. 5—Aug. 17, 2008

• Jul. 5—Aug. 17, 2008
• Closed Monday(if Monday is a national holiday or a substitute holiday, it is the next day)
• Admission：Adults ￥800／College Students ￥700／High School and Junior High School Students,Over 65 ￥600

Imamori Mitsuhiko combines gorgeous photographs with reader-friendly language to communicate the close ties between humanity and nature, in settings that range from tropical rain forests and deserts throughout the world to familiar, domesticated environments in Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography is particularly proud to exhibit the photographs of this world-renowned nature photographer in Insects: On the move for 400 million years.
Imamori was born in Shiga Prefecture in 1945. His fascination with insects, their beauty and their ecology, dates from earliest childhood, and he has traveled the world photographing and collecting information on insects. His work, which is based on a distinctive perspective on nature that transcends nature photography per se, is acclaimed worldwide, as well as in Japan.
In recent years Imamori has been focusing on one type of ecology, that of the satoyama, particularly the area around his home near Lake Biwa, photographing how humanity and other living things coexist. His contribution to the study of satoyama are not limited to photography. He planned, for example, the deeply moving NHK documentary Satoyama, a Visual Poem: Life at the Water’s Edge, which has won the grand prix in numerous international competitions.


 
Darwin's Hawk Moth and Madagascar Orchid, Mada gasucar 1991
A pair of Dung Beeles, Kenya, 1986

This exhibition displays 200 of Imamori’s photographs of insects, including new works well as images already made famous by Insects on Earth and Days of Insects. In them we see the thoughtful attention that Imamori has given to insects, to the natural environment that surrounds them, the activities of human beings, and, through them, the relationship of humanity to nature.