Soichi Sunami (角南 壮一, given name translating as "magnificent first son," and family name translating as "south corner"; 1885–1971) was a Japanese and American modernist photographer, influenced by the pictorialist movement, and best known for his portraits of early modern dancers, including Ruth St Denis, Agnes De Mille, Helen Tamiris and Martha Graham, with whom he maintained an extended artistic collaboration.
He also won several awards from an art salon hosted by Frederick & Nelson, a local department store.
[4][6] By 1922, he had moved to New York City, where he briefly worked for photographer Nickolas Muray before enrolling at the Art Students League, alongside classmate Alexander Calder, under the primary tutelage of Ashcan painter John Sloan,[4] after whom he would later name his son.
For nearly forty years (from 1930 until 1968)[4] he was the main archival photographer at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City,[4] a position that helped him avoid internment during World War II.
His friends and admirers included artist Natalie Hays Hammond and MoMA founder Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.