Hisae Imai

was a Japanese photographer who specialized in the photography of horses.

Biography Born in Tokyo in 1931, Imai graduated from Bunka Gakuin in 1952. Her father owned a photography studio in the Matsuya department store in Ginza, and after graduation she was encouraged to go into photography as well. She had her first solo exhibition in 1956 and went on to win several awards such as the Newcomer's Award from the Photographic Society of Japan and the Camera Geijutsu Art Award.

In 1957, Imai's work also appeared in Bessatsu Atorie Atarashii Shashin, a special issue devoted to subjective photography that emerged from the same postwar milieu as the newly founded Japan Subjective Photography League and brought together emerging photographers such as Ikkō Narahara, Kiyoji Ōtsuji, and Yasuhiro Ishimoto alongside prewar avant-garde figures including Kansuke Yamamoto.

In 1962 Imai was in a car accident that left her temporarily blind for a year and a half, which left her unable to create photographs. Nihon University Museum of Modern Art, New York City Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris) Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art Kawasaki City Museum Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts