Ueda Shoji
Portrait on a Sand Dune

Portrait on a Sand Dune

© Ueda Shoji

Portrait on a Sand Dune
Portrait on a Sand Dune
ArtistJapanese, 1913–2000
CultureJapanese
Titles
  • Portrait on a Sand Dune
Date1950
PlaceJapan
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 10 1/4 × 9 5/16 in. (26 × 23.7 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 × 10 7/8 in. (35.4 × 27.7 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the S. I. Morris Photography Endowment
Object number94.753
Not on view

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Department
Photography
Object Type
Description


Responding to the devastation of World War II, Shoji Ueda found solace and inspiration in the beaches and sand dunes of his home, the coastal Tottori prefecture. Working outside the mainstream photography movements of postwar Japan, Ueda developed a style of staged photography that balanced a distinctive mix of lyricism and humor with compositional strength. In a series of photographs taken in the Tottori dunes, Ueda posed family members across the stark backdrop in haphazard groupings that verge on the surreal. The sense of dreamlike ambiguity is heightened by an uneven horizon, as the dunes roll beneath a cloud-filled sky.           



Provenance[Gallery & Office RAM, U.S.A.]; purchased by MFAH, 1996.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Signed in pencil, recto, lower right below image: Shoji Ueda
Stamped in red ink and inscribed in pencil, verso, lower right quadrant: [in Japanese]
Signed in pencil, recto, lower right below image: Shoji Ueda

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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