Untitled, Japan [Two people in festival costumes]

Born in San Francisco, Yasuhiro Ishimoto grew up in Japan, before returning to the United States in 1939. During World War II, he was interned in Colorado, where he learned to photograph. After the war, he ended up in Chicago, because World War II exclusion zones prevented him from living on either coast. In Chicago, Ishimoto studied at the Chicago Institute of Design under celebrated photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. He became an adept street photographer, chronicling life in mid-century Chicago. In 1953, Ishimoto returned to Japan to be near his family and continued to photograph both the country’s everyday life and architecture. He became an important figure in the cross-pollination of photographic ideas and styles between American and Japanese photography.