Thursday, January 24, 2008

three shots from "Otoko" by Tamotsu Yato




Tamotsu Yato, born circa 1928, died 1973, left behind three important but virtually forgotten books of photography -- "Young Samurai: Bodybuilders of Japan" (1967), "Naked Festival: a photo essay" (1969) and his masterpiece, "Otoko: Photo-studies of the Young Japanese Male" (1972). While the first two books have a definite appeal with their barely-clad subjects, they are still rather straightforward presentations of their subjects. On the other hand, "Otoko" was very definitely the work of a gay man taking photographs meant to appeal to other gay men.

More to come from Mr. Yato soon...!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi!

Great to see Yato's artwork posted online! He was a wondeful photographer for sure!

I've actually started a Wikipedia article about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamotsu_Yato

Please feel welcome to edit/expand it...

karinablacktie said...

I'll chip away at your 99% gay male audience by stating that I am a heterosexual woman who appreciates the beauty of Yato's work. It doesn't surprise me that many of the models are heterosexual. After all, they are models. These are not voyeuristic photographs; they are carefully crafted pieces of art which pay homage to the male body. Allow me to add, a very hunky male body.

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