Ikkō Narahara

Born in Fukuoka, Narahara studied law at Chuo University (graduating in 1954) and, influenced by statues of Buddha at Nara, art history at the graduate school of Waseda University, from which he received an MA in 1959.

He had his first solo exhibition, Ningen no tochi (Human land), at the Matsushima Gallery (Ginza) in 1956.

In his second exhibition, "Domains", at the Fuji Photo Salon in 1958, he showed a Trappist monastery in Tobetsu (Hokkaidō), and a women's prison in Wakayama.

These recordings would become an interesting document of the artist's statements about her own work shortly before she committed suicide.

In 1967 Narahara won the Photographer of the Year Award from the Japan Photo Critics Association.