is a Japanese photographer.

Career

Kurata graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1968. He taught in secondary school and worked in oils, printmaking, and experimental movies.

He practised under Daidō Moriyama

Daido Moriyama

is a Japanese photographer noted for his images depicting the breakdown of traditional values in post-war Japan.- Life and career :Born in Ikeda, Osaka, Daidō Moriyama studied photography under Takeji Iwamiya before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as an assistant to Eikoh Hosoe...

 in an independent photography workshop in 1976.

Kurata won the fifth Kimura Ihei Award

Kimura Ihei Award

The is a Japanese photographic award that attracts the attention of the mass media and book-buyers.The award has been given every year since 1975 by the Asahi Shimbun Company, publisher of Asahi Shimbun and the magazine Asahi Camera, in honor of the photographer Ihei Kimura...

 in 1980 for his first book, Flash Up. For the black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 photographs here, Kurata used flash and a medium format camera, resulting in a detailed portrait of a world of bōsōzoku

Bosozoku

is a Japanese subculture associated with motorcycle clubs and gangs.-Traits and history:The word bōsōzoku is also applied to motorcycle gangs, who share an interest in modifications for motorcycles, such as removing the mufflers so that more noise is produced...

, gangsters, rightists, strippers, transvestites, and so on: as Parr

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take a critical look at aspects of modern life, in particular provincial and suburban life in England...

 and Badger

Gerry Badger

Gerald David "Gerry" Badger is a writer about, and curator of photography, and a photographer.The two volumes of The Photobook: A History, which Badger co-wrote with Martin Parr, won the 2006 book award for photography from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation...

 point out, these are old subjects; but in his "highly polished, detailed" work, Kurata "has an unerring instinct for pictures that suggest stories". Photo Cabaret and 80's Family continued in this direction. This Japanese work of Kurata's is anthologized in his later volume Japan.

Kurata won the PSJ award in 1992. A long stay in Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

 in 1994 led to the book Toransu Ajia, which continued color work of the Asian mainland started with Dai-Ajia.

In 1999 Kurata's book Japan won the Kodansha Publishing Culture Award for a work of photography.

Prints of Kurata's photographs are in the permanent collections of ICP

International Center of Photography

The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...

 (New York), the Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....

, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography

The is an art museum focused on photography. The museum was founded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and is located in Meguro-ku, a short walk from Ebisu station in southwest Tokyo...

.

Solo exhibitions

• "Street Photo Random Tokyo 1975–79". Nikon Salon
  Nikon Salon
  is the name given to exhibition spaces and activities run by Nikon in Japan.The Ginza Nikon Salon opened in January 1968 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Nippon Kōgaku . This was later augmented by the Shinjuku Nikon Salon and the Osaka Nikon Salon...
  
  , Tokyo and Osaka, 1979.
• "Photo Cabaret". Doi Photo Plaza, Shibuya, Tokyo, 1983.
• "Street Photo Random Tokyo 2". Nikon Salon, Tokyo, 1986.
• "Great Asia". Minolta Photo Space, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 1990.
• "Eros Quest". Mole, Tokyo, 1993.
• "Trans Asia". Nikon Salon, Tokyo; Visual Arts School, Osaka, 1995.
• "Tokyo: Theatrical Megalopolis". O. K. Harris Gallery, New York, 1995.
• "Trans Market: Tokyo Kanda vegetable and fruit market". Nikon Salon, Tokyo and Osaka, 1996.
• Japan from the 70s to the 90s. Kodak Photo Salon, Tokyo, 1999.
• "Quest for Eros". Galleria Prova, Tokyo, 1999.

Books by Kurata

Following a title in Japanese script, an italicized roman-letter title is one provided on or in the book itself; a non-italicized roman-letter title is a mere gloss of the original title. Flash Up: Street Photo Random Tokyo 1975–1979. Tokyo: Byakuya Shobō, 1980. Black-and-white photographs. Includes one essay in English but also several in Japanese only; the captions too are only in Japanese.

• Foto Kyabarē / Photo Cabaret. Tokyo: Byakuya Shobō, 1982. ISBN 4-938256-39-4. Black-and-white photographs of Japan. Text in Japanese only.
• Dai-Ajia . Tokyo: IBC, 1990. ISBN 4-87198-807-4.
• 80's Family: Street Photo Random Japan. Tokyo: JICC Shuppankyoku, 1991. ISBN 4-7966-0079-5. Black-and-white and colour photographs of Japan. Text in Japanese only.
• Toransu-Ajia . Tokyo: Ōta Shuppan, 1995. ISBN 4-87233-218-0.
• Japan / Japan. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, Photo Musée, 1998. ISBN 4-10-602433-0. The captions are in English.
• Kuesuto fō Erosu / Quest for Eros. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1998. ISBN 4-10-430201-5.

Links and sources

Iizawa Kōtarō

Kotaro Iizawa

is a Japanese photography critic, historian of photography, and magazine editor.Born in Sendai, Miyagi in 1954, Iizawa studied photography in Nihon University, graduating in 1977. He obtained his doctorate at University of Tsukuba....

. Tōkyō shashin / Tokyo Photography. Tokyo: Inax, 1995. ISBN 4-87275-059-4. Despite the English subtitle, all in Japanese. Photographs by and essays on Kineo Kuwabara

Kineo Kuwabara

was a Japanese editor and photographer, known for photographing Tokyo for over half a century.Kuwabara was born in Tokyo in 1913. He started taking photographs around 1931 with a Vest Pocket Kodak, but his interest increased as a result of an invitation by his neighbor Hiroshi Hamaya to go to a...

, William Klein

William Klein

William Klein is a photographer and filmmaker noted to for his ironic approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography...

, Masatoshi Naitō

Masatoshi Naito

is a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, Shigeo Gochō

Shigeo Gocho

was a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, Nobuyoshi Araki

Nobuyoshi Araki

is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. He is also known by the nickname .-Life and career:Araki was born in Tokyo, studied photography during his college years and then went to work at the advertising agency Dentsu, where he met his future wife, the essayist Yōko Araki...

, Daidō Moriyama

Daido Moriyama

is a Japanese photographer noted for his images depicting the breakdown of traditional values in post-war Japan.- Life and career :Born in Ikeda, Osaka, Daidō Moriyama studied photography under Takeji Iwamiya before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as an assistant to Eikoh Hosoe...

, Ryūji Miyamoto

Ryuji Miyamoto

is a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, Kyōichi Tsuzuki, and Yurie Nagashima

Yurie Nagashima

is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist working predominantly in the genres self-portraiture, portraiture, street photography and still life. In 2000, Nagashima was awarded the prestigious Kimura Ihei Award...

, as well as Kurata. Profile at TPO Photo School. Review of Toransu-Ajia.

• Ono, Philbert. "Kurata Seiji". Brief note at PhotoGuide Japan.
• Parr, Martin, and Gerry Badger. The Photobook 1. London: Phaidon, 2004. ISBN 0-7148-4285-0. Sanjūroku fotogurafāzu: Kimura Ihei Shashinshō no sanjūnen . Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun, 2005. ISBN 4-02-272303-3. With sample photographs from each of the award-winners. Shashinshū o yomu: Besuto 338 kanzen gaido . Tokyo: Metarōgu, 1997. ISBN 4-8398-2010-4. P.172. Review of 80's Family.