Alongside other surrealist inspired works presented at the exhibition, this marked the beginning of the club’s stylistic shift away from the more standard pictorial photography that was popular in Japan at the time.

At the 21st Namiten, held in Tokyo in 1932, Koishi debuted an exhibition of 10 photographs, each paired with a short poem, titled Shoka Shinkei (初夏神経, Early Summer Nerves), presented as an experiment in new photography.

The photos featured modernist compositions, abstract subjects, and multi-layered exposures, a stark contrast from the realism focused journalistic photography that was popular in Tokyo.

[3] The collection was published as a photobook by the Naniwa Shashin Club the following year, allowing Koishi’s unconventional work to reach a larger audience.

Though it was met with praise by the Naniwa Shashin Club and other photographers in the Kansai region for his impressive use of technique, Koishi received much more critical reviews from Tokyo-based artists, considering the photos to be too abstract and lacking in reality.

Despite working as a war photographer producing press photos for the Japanese military, Koishi continued to practice his avant-garde photography while stationed in China.

A collection of recompositions of photographs he took while abroad, Han Sekai (半世界, Half World), offered a sympathetic view of the occupied Chinese territory.