About the Author

Hiraki Osam, independent photography critic and photographic historian, is Director of the Photographic Society of Japan. He is the co-founder of Kawasaki City Museum's photography department, where he edited and wrote exhibition catalogs and articles about the 1950s. Hiraki also co-edited the Japanese Photography Guide (Nazraeli Press, 1996). In 1998, he curated the world's first Pulitzer Prize Photography Exhibition. Takeuchi Keiichi is a leading expert in human geography, a branch of geography that studies the interaction of people with their environment. He is professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University in Japan and was director of the Japanese Cultural institute in Rome from 1988-1991. His publications include Modern Japanese Geography: An Intellectual History (Kokon Shoin, 1991). Alain Sayag, head curator of photography at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris (Centre Georges Pompidou), has directed several international exhibitions and has published numerous photography books.