Shunji Dodo

is a Japanese photographer of the Kii Peninsula, Osaka, and other subjects.

Life and career Dodo was born in Osaka in 1947. He graduated in fine arts from Kyushu Sangyo University in 1970, Two years later he started work as a teacher of photography at Ōsaka Shashin Senmon Gakkō; in 1998 he was made head of the school, by that time renamed Visual Arts College Osaka. and was later teaching at Visual Arts Senmon Gakkō, had her first baby on 24 April 2004, in Nara. This was filmed as Tarachime and Dodo photographed the event; the photographs were exhibited in Nara, Tokyo, and Locarno,

Dodo has said that his major influences were Shōmei Tōmatsu, especially his Ryūkyū series "Pencil of the Sun", and Yutaka Takanashi, for the way in which Takanashi's concentration on Tokyo showed Dodo his own possibilities in Osaka. Among the photographers he admires are Robert Frank and William Klein.

Exhibitions by Dodo

1978 "Ōsaka, Tennōji". Nikon Salon (Ginza, Osaka). 1985 "Shinsekai: Mukashi mo ima mo". Nikon Salon (Ginza, Osaka). 2007 "Haha + vegetable". Gallery Bauhaus (Tokyo). 2007 "Ha ha". Focale Galerie (Locarno). 2010 "Kamagasaki/Shinsekai: Life in the shadow of the economic miracle". Zen Foto Gallery (Shibuya, Tokyo). Photographs of Shinsekai and Kamagasaki (both in Osaka) by Dodo and Seiryū Inoue. 2010 "Osaka". Tokio Out of Place (Minami Azabu, Tokyo).

Film, video Coproducer, The Mourning Forest (2007). Actor, Tsunagari-yuku mono / Things Passed Down (dir. Naomi Kawase, 2009). Dodo plays the gruff photographer father in this long commercial for Nikon.

Publications by Dodo

Chihei / Horizon. Issues 1–10. 1971–77. Shinsekai: Mukashi mo ima mo . Osaka: Chōseisha, 1986. Black-and-white photographs of Shinsekai, Osaka. Horizon, 1993. A joint work. Shashin "Ningen no machi" 93/94 / Faces of Humanity 93/94. Edited by Shunji Dodo, George Hashiguchi, and Naomi Yanagimoto. Published by the editors (at their respective addresses), 1994. Much of the text is in English as well as Japanese. On pp. 156–65 Dodo presents his own series, "Kaosu 1969–1970" , photographs of people from US military bases and of protests against these. Rakudo: Kii hantō / A Radiant Land: Kii Peninsula. Osaka: Brain Center, 1995. . Large-format black-and-white photographs of the Kii Peninsula. Sennen rakudo / A Radiant Land with Thousands of Years. Osaka: Brain Center, 2000. . Large-format colour photographs of the Kii Peninsula. Sharasōju / Shara. Nara: Sento/Kumie, 2003. With Naomi Kawase; black-and-white photographs of the making of, and production notes for, Kawase's film Shara. Haha . Nara: Gallery Out of Place, 2006. Saien + sakura / A Vegetable Garden, Sakura. Osaka: Vacuum Press, 2009. . Black-and-white photographs of the products of Dodo's vegetable garden, and of cherry blossoms. Ōsaka ( / Osaka. Kyoto: Seigensha, 2010. . Large-format black-and-white photographs of Osaka. Haruka na chihei ( / Horizon far and away 1968–1977. Tokyo: Akaakasha, 2012. . Numerous series of Dodo's older photographs. Nihonkai ( / Japan Sea. Tokyo: Akaakasha, 2014. . Photographs of the Sea of Japan coastal area. Sorahoderi no machi ( / A City Aglow. Tokyo: Case, 2019. .