Photographies japonaises de la Bibliothèque nationale de France. Scènes, signes, sensations

Organised as part of the celebrations for the bicentenary of the birth of photography, this exhibition traces, through 300 works — including 250 photographic prints, predominantly in black and white, and around fifty rare books from the BnF's collections — the evolution of photographic practice in Japan over the past 80 years.

The exhibition in brief

Since the late 1960s, the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) has established itself as one of the first Western institutions to take an interest in modern and contemporary Japanese photography. Already possessing a remarkable collection of Japanese prints from the 17th to 19th centuries, it has progressively built an exceptional photographic collection. Housed in the Prints and Photography Department, this collection brings together nearly 4,000 prints by some 200 artists and reporters, as well as around a hundred emblematic magazines and books tracing the history of Japanese photography since 1945. This collection, among the most important in the Western world, was built with the collaboration of Japanese photographers who settled in France in the second half of the 20th century and became ambassadors for the extraordinary creative effervescence of their archipelago.

This major exhibition brings together around a hundred artists: authors now widely recognised on the international scene, but also other figures whose approaches and styles deserve to be discovered. The originality of the BnF's Japanese photographic collection also lies in the major thematic and aesthetic axes that run through it. Sometimes rooted in reality, through reportages dedicated to the rural world, festivals, rituals, or urban and economic expansion, sometimes theatrical, whimsical, or poetic, Japanese photography gives an essential place to sensations and atmospheres. It unfolds in works combining remarkable simplicity of composition with great sophistication of printing.

Facing reality

Reportage photography and its realism play a predominant role in post-war production, as evidenced by Hiroshi Hamaya's reportages, Hiromi Tsuchida's series, or those by Yoko Yamamoto, contributing to rebuilding a common national foundation where r