Yūshi Kobayashi

Yūshi Kobayashi (小林 祐史, Kobayashi Yūshi, 1898–1988) was a renowned Japanese photographer.[1]

He was born in December of 1898 in Tokuyama city in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

After losing his father at a young age, Kobayashi was left to the guardianship of his uncle, Juichi Kobayashi, who worked at a photography studio in the historical Teramachi area of Kyoto City. He graduated the Kyoto Prefectural Daiichi Junior High School. In 1918, he entered the photography department of the Tokyo Fine Arts School (presently-day Tokyo University of the Arts). There he studied portrait photography under Ezaki Kiyoshi.[2]

After graduating in 1923, he returned to Kyoto to work at his uncle’s photo studio, eventually inheriting the business after his uncle’s death. [2]

From the late 1920’s, Kobayashi would go to Karuizawa every summer and open a temporary photography studio to take portraits of the elites who frequented the resort town to escape the summer heat. He took portraits of Yukio Ozaki, Sessue Hayakawa, Inazo Nitobe, Bertrand Russell and others. [2]

He was an active member of K.P.S. (Kyoto Photo Society), working alongside of Noboru Ueki, and Nihon Koga Kyokai, another leading art photography society at that time. [2]

He was an early champion of the emerging genre of art photography. He used oil pigment prints, like bromoil, to create landscape photographs. For his portrait photographs, he used techniques such as soft focus and deformation. [2]

In the 1930’s he was influenced by the modern art movement and his works slowly became more avantgarde using more experimental techniques like photomontage and x-ray film. [3]

In his late years he collaborated with the Panreal Art Association, a group of avant-garde artists.

In 1980, he had his first solo exhibition at Kyoto Asahi Hall, exhibiting color photo montage works. In 1988, his works were exhibited in the FotoFest ’88 based in Houston, Texas. [3]

Kobayashi passed away in Kyoto City in 1988. [3]