About the Artist
Ikki Mitsuhashi三橋一樹
Ikki Mitsuhashi (b. 1943, Tokyo) is a Japanese photographer who came to the camera through design. Trained at Musashino Art School, he spent the golden age of Japanese advertising at the Nippon Design Center and as an art director for Lufthansa and Kanebo, before founding his own studio in 1972 and turning to photography in earnest — a designer's photographer.
Life
- 1943
- Born 15 December, Tokyo.
- 1965
- Graduates from Musashino Art School (Commercial Design). Joins the Nippon Design Center, the studio that gathered many of Japan's most influential designers.
- 1968
- Joins Grey-Daiko as art director for Lufthansa German Airlines.
- 1970
- Joins JMS as art director for Kanebo cosmetics.
- 1972
- Founds his own design studio and begins working as a photographer.
- 1973
- Publishes his first photobook, Star Man (Shashin Hyoronsha).
- 1965–1980
- Awards include Nissenbi Special Selection, the Asahi, Mainichi and Nikkei Advertising Awards, the Dentsu Award and an ADC Bronze.
- 1980
- Closes the design studio to work as a photographer.
- 1982
- Publishes Long Long Long Beach (Sansosha), text by screenwriter Shin'ichi Ichikawa.
- 1994
- Publishes Elvis My Happiness.
- 2000s
- Photographs the Tropical Garden series in the studio; prints are sold through Art Gallery Closet, Tokyo, and privately.
- 2026
- First public online edition.
How the work is described
Every picture on this site is accompanied by a short text — not a caption, but an observation. No first person; prose, not verse; the restraint of the photographs carried into words. The Japanese and English are written independently by fluent writers, never translated word for word.
Books
1973 · Shashin Hyoronsha, Tokyo
Star Man
His debut photobook, from the publisher behind Daido Moriyama's Bye Bye Photography and Shomei Tomatsu's I am a King. 28 pages, 35.5 × 34 cm, softcover. Model: Hiroshi Inoue. Signed first editions are scarce and have sold at European auction for roughly €280–350.
1982 · Sansosha, Tokyo
Long Long Long Beach
A contemplative sequence photographed on a Florida beach — figures before the sea, weighing past against present. Text by screenwriter Shin'ichi Ichikawa. "Everyone was watching the ocean." Retail price at publication ¥1,800.
1994 · Tokyo
Elvis My Happiness
A photographic pilgrimage through the landscapes of Elvis Presley's life, drawing on the artist's own photographs made in the United States decades earlier. Cover reproduction to follow.