Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s Chicago, Chicago is a visual exploration of the city of Chicago, captured during three distinct periods: from 1948 to 1952 while studying at the Institute of Design, from 1958 to 1961 on a Minolta-sponsored fellowship, and briefly in 1982. Ishimoto’s project documents the evolving architectural landscape, the social fabric, and the daily rhythms of life in one of America’s most dynamic metropolises. His perspective, shaped by his Japanese-American heritage and education at the Institute of Design, lends a unique visual and conceptual depth to his work, blending modernist formalism with an empathetic documentary approach.
Chicago during Ishimoto’s time was undergoing rapid urban redevelopment, social stratification, and racial segregation. Economic and demographic shifts led to the destruction of pre-war structures and the rise of modernist high-rises, reinforcing a segregated urban fabric shaped by the Great Migration and systemic racial policies. Ishimoto, having experienced racial discrimination firsthand due to his internment during World War II, gravitated toward communities that were often underrepresented in mainstream visual narratives. His lens focused on everyday moments in African American neighborhoods, bustling street scenes, and public spaces like beaches and playgrounds, sites of both leisure and social tension during the civil rights era.
His work neither overtly critiques nor celebrates the city; rather, it provides a nuanced, layered representation that allows the complexities of Chicago’s identity to emerge organically. He captures children playing, workers in transit, architectural geometries, and fleeting expressions, constructing a vision of the city that is both intimate and expansive. His approach balances documentary realism with abstract composition, demonstrating a deep engagement with form, structure, and human presence. Influenced by the Bauhaus-inspired methodologies of the Institute of Design, his photographs employ strong geometric forms, dynamic contrasts between light and shadow, and an acute awareness of spatial relationships.
Published in 1969, Chicago, Chicago won the Mainichi Art Award (1970), was revisited in a second volume (1983), and has figured in key presentations from New Japanese Photography (MoMA, 1974) and the Art Institute of Chicago’s retrospective Yasuhiro Ishimoto: A Tale of Two Cities (1999) to Yasuhiro Ishimoto: Someday, Chicago (DePaul Art Museum, 2018) and Yasuhiro Ishimoto: Lines and Bodies (LE BAL, Paris, 2024).
