A Long Shadow: Postwar Japan Through the Lens

Avance: escrito antes de la inauguración

The Met's image for this show is Tōmatsu Shōmei's Hateruma Island, from 1971: a black-and-white sea under one huge, billowing cloud, the horizon tipped on a slant. Hateruma is in Okinawa, which the United States occupied until 1972 and which still hosts most of the American troops stationed in Japan.

Okinawa and the towns around US bases are the show's ground. Tōmatsu photographed the collision of American and Japanese culture there. Ishikawa Mao, Ishiuchi Miyako and Tokiwa Toyoko turned to what the occupation meant for women, including themselves and their friends. Yamashiro Chikako, an Okinawan artist working now, carries it into the present. Next to the prints are the photobooks and monthly magazines where photographers swapped neutral reportage for something personal.

It is the Met's first Japanese photography show since 1995, drawn from its own collection, with new acquisitions by Tōmatsu, Ishikawa and Ishiuchi. You'll find it in Gallery 851 at The Met Fifth Avenue, free with Museum admission.