is a Japanese photographer who has photographed fashion, urban design, and city life, and is best known for his depiction of Tokyo.
Life and career
Takanashi was born on 6 February 1935 in Shirogane-chō, Ushigome-ku (now Shinjuku), Tokyo. In 1943 he was evacuated to Saitama (Saitama). In 1953 he graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan Aoyama High School and entered the photography department of Nihon University. His first camera was a Canon IVSb 35 mm rangefinder.
In 1956 Takanashi's photographs won awards from Sankei Camera magazine. He graduated from university in 1957, and tried but failed to enter various news companies, settling for darkroom work in Ginza for the photographer Osamu Yagi (). His university graduation work was published in the September issue of Sankei Camera. After meeting Kiyoji Ōtsuji, he entered Kuwasawa Design School in 1959, graduating in 1961.
In May 1960 he had his first solo exhibition, of work from his series "Somethin' Else", in Ginza Garō. His second exhibition featured work from the same series, face-on images of buildings taken with a 4×5 large format camera.
In 1961 Takanashi married Reiko Mizoguchi.
Between 1961 and 1970 he worked at Nippon Design Center doing commercial photography.
Takanashi was a member of the collective that produced Provoke magazine in 1968 and 1969.
Takanashi had a tenured position at Tokyo Zokei University from 1980 until 2000 (a full professor from 1983), whereupon he retired but continued teaching there part-time.
From 1992, Takanashi, Genpei Akasegawa and Yūtokutaishi Akiyama worked together in the group Raika Dōmei.
Takanashi won the Annual Award of the Photographic Society of Japan twice, in 1984 and 1993.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
"Somethin' Else". Ginza Garō (Ginza, Tokyo), 1960. "Hyōteki" (, Target). Ginza Garō (Ginza, Tokyo), 1962. "Tenshi kikō" (, White Houri). Wako (Ginza, Tokyo), 1974. "Machi" (, Town). Minolta Photo Space (Tokyo), 1978. "Jinzō" (, Human Images). Minolta Photo Space (Osaka), 1979. "Tōkyōjin 1978–1982" () / "Tokyoites 1978–1982". Olympus Gallery (Tokyo), 1982. "Jinzō II" (, Human Images II). Minolta Photo Space (Tokyo), 1986. "Tokyo-jin 1978–1983". Espace Japon (Paris), 1986. "Miyako no kao: 1986–1988" () / "Visages of a Metropolis 1986–1988". Inax Gallery 2 (Kyōbashi, Tokyo), 1988. "Sorezore no machi" () / "Each Town". Setagaya Art Museum (Setagaya, Tokyo), 1988. "Magajīn" () / "Magazine". Ginza Canon Salon (Tokyo), 1988. "Toshi e/kara ten" (). Frog (Tokyo), 1989. "Hatsukuni" () / "Pre-landscape". Minolta Photo Space (Tokyo), 1992. "Tōkyō Ginza sandaiki" (, Three Generations, Ginza, Tokyo). Gallery Art-Graph (Tokyo), 1995. One exhibition in a series of three, the other exhibitors being Shigeichi Nagano and Osamu Kanemura. "Shikku suru shashinka: Takanashi Yutaka 'hōhōron' no kanata e, ten" (, A rushing photographer, Yutaka Takanashi: Going beyond methodology). Guardian Garden (Tokyo), 1996. "Takanashi Yutaka gyararī" () / "Yutaka Takanashi Gallery". Canon Makuhara Wonder Museum (Chiba City), 1999. "Interlude". Art Gallery C-Square, Chukyo University (Nagoya), June–July 2000. "Tōkyō Zōkei Daigaku taishoku kinen shashin-kōza-ten: Takanashi Yutaka 'Shashin, hito ni yotte'" (). Tokyo Zokei University Yokoyama Memorial Manzù Art Museum (Hachiōji, Tokyo), 2000. "Chimeiron" () / "Genius Loci, Tokyo". Konica Plaza (Tokyo), 2000. "Windscape — shasō kara" (). Visual Arts Gallery (Osaka), 20. "Warera no emono wa itteki no hikari" (, Our Target is a Drop of Light). Photographers' Gallery (Shinjuku, Tokyo), January 2003. "Wind Scape". Shoo Museum of the Arts (Shōō, Okayama), 2003. "Nostalghia". Photographers' Gallery (Shinjuku, Tokyo), September 2004. "Hatsukuni" () / "Pre-landscape". Shadai Gallery (Tokyo Polytechnic University, Nakano, Tokyo), September–October 2006. "Kakoi machi" (). Canon Gallery S (Minato, Tokyo), March–June 2007. "Takanashi Yutaka: Hikari no fīrudonōto" () / "Yutaka Takanashi: Field Notes of Light". National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, January–March 2009. "Yutaka Takanashi: Photography 1965-74". Galerie Priska Pasquer (Cologne), April–June 2010. "Yutaka Takanashi". Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris. May 10 - July 29, 2012.
Selection of other joint exhibitions
This list does not include the exhibitions of Raika Dōmei.