As commercial cameras became more accessible, Japan experienced a proliferation of photography clubs, a movement that eventually made its way to college campuses in the 1930s.
By 1953, the organization had grown with affiliated photography clubs at 234 universities, 931 high schools, and a total of 34,347 student photographers.
Kaneko explains that this method reflected a “shared consciousness of issues and the relative ease of shooting with everyone participating” contributing to a conviviality and a continuous exchange of ideas between members.
There was also the aspect of anonymity in “collective production” where the hierarchies of the students in the club were not evident in the resulting photographs which were then selected carefully and published in photobooks such as Hiroshima, HIROSHIMA, hirou-shima, which reveals the persistent trauma of city even years after the fall of the atomic bomb; Kono Chijo ni Wareware no Kuni ha Nai (“On This Land We Have No Country”) reveal various environmental repercussions of economic development which include photos of people with Minamata disease; and many photobooks.
This methodology eventually lost traction as “collective production” merely devolved into a means to preserve the existence of the club and many projects did not result in photo books until they were finished much later by alumni of the organization.