Yoshifumi Hattori

Yoshifumi Hattori (服部義文, Hattori Yoshifumi) was a Japanese photographer active in prewar experimental photography and postwar Nagoya avant-garde.

According to an exhibition text published by MEM, Hattori studied butoh dance under Baku Ishii in Tokyo before turning to photography in 1937. In that year he co-founded the Avant-Garde Image Group with Tarui Yoshio, Hanawa Gingo, Kōrō Honjō, and Hirai Terushichi, and his work The Legends (Gods), shown at the 27th Nami-ten Exhibition in 1938, received critical acclaim.

After World War II, Hattori became a founding member of the Nagoya photography collective VIVI, formed in 1947 with the photographer-poet Kansuke Yamamoto and photographers Keiichirō Gotō and Minayoshi Takada.

Early life and turn to photography MEM's profile states that Hattori initially studied dance under Baku Ishii in Tokyo and only switched to photography in 1937. Hattori's work The Legends (Gods), exhibited at the 27th Nami-ten in 1938, received critical acclaim. These works help document Hattori's continued participation in the postwar experimental milieu around VIVI.

Position in Nagoya photography Hattori is relevant to the history of Photography in Nagoya as a figure linking prewar experimental photography with postwar avant-garde activity in the city. His career is also relevant to accounts of avant-garde photography in Japan, especially through the combination of his late-1930s experimental work and his later participation in VIVI alongside Kansuke Yamamoto.