Shomei Tomatsu (Okinawa, Japan)
- 1930
- Born in Aichi, Nagoya.
- 1954-56
- Becomes staff photographer for the Iwanami Shashin Bunko series alongside Nagano Shigeichi.
- 1958
- Begins the Chewing Gum and Chocolate series, studying the impact of American occupation on Japan. This will become a major theme throughout Tomatsu’s work.
- 1959
- A major typhoon strikes the area of Nagoya where Tomatsu was brought up, destroying his mother’s home. He photographs the aftermath of the storm.
- 1959-61
- Co-founds the seminal Vivo group with Hosoe Eikoh, Kawada Kikuji, Sato Akira, Tanno Akira and Narahara Ikko.
- 1960
- Tomatsu is asked to produce the photography for a book on Nagasaki for a campaign against nuclear weapons. This is the beginning of the Nagasaki 11:02 series which took stock of the human impact of the atomic bomb, 15 years after it was dropped.
- 1972-76
- Moves to Okinawa after the islands reverted to Japan following the American occupation.
- 1995
- Awarded the Medal with the Purple Ribbon by the Japanese government
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
- 1996
- Traces: 50 years of Tomatsu’s works, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
- 2004
- Interface, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.
- 2006
- Aichi Mandala: Early Works of Tomatsu Shomei, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya.
- 2006
- Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
