Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
Seattle Camera Club photographs, approximately 1920-1939
Overview of the Collection
- Collector
- Seattle Camera Club
- Title
- Seattle Camera Club photographs
- Dates
- approximately 1920-1939 (inclusive)19201939
- Quantity
- 31 photographic prints (1 box) ; sizes vary
- Collection Number
- PH1234
- Summary
- The collection includes mainly pictorialist-style photos from different members of the Seattle Camera Club as well as non-members.
- Repository
-
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu - Access Restrictions
Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries’ Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.
- Languages
- English
Historical NoteReturn to Top
In the mid-1920s a group of immigrant Japanese-American Pictorialist photographers in Seattle came together to form the Seattle Camera Club (SCC) in order to share their love of photography. While the club only lasted from 1924-1929, it was amazingly successful. Members exhibited their work all over the world and their photographs were widely published and won many awards. Sadly, most of their work was lost over time for various reasons, including the internment of the Japanese during WW II. The activities of SCC photographers paralleled those of members of Japanese immigrant photography clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the SCC was distinguished by its enthusiastic and successful efforts to recruit non-Japanese members and by its monthly journal, Notan , which more than any other factor preserved SCC activities for posterity. Despite the pervasive racism that prevented Japanese immigrants from gaining citizenship, the work of SCC members was well received, finding prizes, purchasers, and general acclaim. Acknowledging the prominence of West Coast camera club photographers, the editor of the 1928 American Annual of Photography wrote, "the influence of this group on our Pacific coast has put a lasting mark on photography in this country, the repercussions of which are echoing throughout the world.” The word "Pictorialist" was used to describe both the photographic style as well as the photographer who used the medium for artistic expression. The range of styles associated with Pictorialism followed parallel painting trends such as Tonalism, Symbolism, and especially Impressionism whose preoccupation with transient light effects was perfectly suited to photography. To achieve their results, the photographic artists used innovative darkroom techniques and processes to manipulate their negatives and prints into unique compositions that were compatible with their contemporaries in the fields of painting and printmaking.
Source: Nicolette Bromberg: Shadows of a Fleeting World .
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The collection includes mainly pictorialist-style photos from different members of the Seattle Camera Club as well as non-members. (Larger collections of work by members of the Seattle Camera Club exist as separate collections.)
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Alternative Forms Available
View the digital version of the collection
Restrictions on Use
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Processing Note
Processed by Don Romero, 2015.
Related Materials
Dr. Kyo Koike, Frank Kunishige, and Iwao Matsushita each have their own collections, located at the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. Dr. Koike was a founding member and president of the Seattle Camera Club for a time; his work is in Photograph Collection 262. Frank Kunishige was also a founding member of the SCC; his work is in Photograph Collection 343. Another charter member of the SCC was Iwao Matsushita, whose work can be seen in Photograph Collection 162.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
Members of Seattle Camera ClubReturn to Top
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
Louis N. Chatani |
|||
| box:oversize | item | ||
| XD4 | Chatani1 | Landscape The photograph was exhibited at the First Annual Salon of
Photography, put on by The Camera Enthusiasts in San Diego, California,
1928.
|
circa 1928 |
Virna Haffer |
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/1 | Haffer1 | 1931 | |
Hiromu Kira Hiromu Kira was born on April 5, 1898 in Hawaii and grew up in
Japan; he then lived in Canada before moving to Seattle in 1917. He bought his
first camera in 1919 (a Kodak) and proceeded to reach himself photography, with
the first exhibition of his work in 1923. Kira was one of the founding members
of the Seattle Camera Club beginning in 1924, and later moved to Los Angeles in
1926. While in Los Angeles, he connected with members of the Japanese Camera
Pictorialists of California, but did not join this club. Kira was recognized
for his still life photos, in particular images of folded paper birds. His work
was published in Camera Craft,
Notan, Photo-Era. and
the American Annual of Photography. For Kira,
photography was not his full-time profession; he worked at a Seattle drugstore
selling camera equipment and processing film. He also worked at T. Iwata's Art
Store and for RKO Radio Pictures in Los Angeles as a retoucher. Kira died in
Los Angeles on July 19, 1991.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/2 | Kira1 |
Industrial building with smokestacks:
Urban Buildings Written on verso: Published as Plate 6 in
Pictorial Photography in America, Volume 4
|
circa 1926 |
| 1/2 | Kira2a-b |
Seattle skyline below cloudy sky:
Peaceful City 2a is approximately 10" x 13" and 2b is 5" x 7".
|
circa 1920s-1930s |
Kusatora Matsuki Kusatora Matsuki was an amateur photographer who worked in a
drugstore.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/3 | Matsuki1a-b |
Man walking in alley with shadows:
Sunlight in the Morning Matsuki1a (8" x10") has SCC Notan label on verso. Matsuki1b
is approximately 11" x 14".
|
circa 1929 |
Yukio Morinaga Yukio Morinaga was born on January 11, 1888 in Yamaguchi
Prefecture, Japan. After emigrating to the U.S. he moved to Seattle in 1907. He
and fellow photographer Hiromu Kira worked for Mr. Yasukichi Chiba, who was
also an amateur photographer and like the two men, a founding member of the
SCC. Morinaga and Kira worked in the camera department of the store and they
often socialized with Dr. Kyo Koike who had his medical practice a few blocks
away. Koike and other SCC members relied on Morinaga’s darkroom expertise to
print many of their exhibition photographs.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/4 | Morinaga1 |
Biplanes in the sky: Magellans
of Today Written on verso: Published in XX Salon Int'l de
Photographie 1925, p. 31. Published in Notan, May
8, 1925.
|
1924 |
| 1/4 | Morinaga2 |
Morinaga's house Written on verso: From Noma.
|
undated |
| 1/4 | Morinaga3 |
Holiday greeting card by Morinaga Written on verso: From Noma.
|
undated |
| 1/4 | Morinaga4 | Morinaga embossed envelope |
1940 |
Fred Ogasawara Fred Yutaka Ogasawara was born in 1883 and was one of the
founding members of the Seattle Camera Club. He later lived in Portland and was
one of the most internationally exhibited members of the SCC. Ogasawara
returned to Japan before WW II; unfortunately, very little of his work and
biographical information about him has survived.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/5 | Ogasawara1 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
| 1/5 | Ogasawara2 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
| 1/5 | Ogasawara3 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
| 1/5 | Ogasawara4 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
| 1/5 | Ogasawara5 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
| 1/5 | Ogasawara6 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
| 1/5 | Ogasawara7 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
Soichi Sunami Soichi Sunami was born in Okayama, Japan on February 18, 1885.
He emigrated to the United States in 1905 and arrived in Seattle on February
24, 1907. He became interested in photography as a young art student when he
was part of a group of young Issei modern artists in Seattle who studied under
Fokko Tadama. By 1918 he was living in Tacoma, where he worked as a cook, but
shortly thereafter he returned to Seattle and found employment in Ella
McBride’s studio. Sunami exhibited in the first Frederick & Nelson Salon in
1920, where he was one of only a few regional artists to be presented with an
award. The following years, he participated in the North American Times
Exhibition of Pictorial Photographs represented by six works. A few months
later, he was awarded two additional prizes in the Frederick & Nelson
Salon. In 1922, he moved to New York City to pursue his art studies. Soichi
maintained his contacts in the Pacific Northwest, although he lived in New
York. He exhibited with the Seattle Camera Club (SCC) in 1926, where his single
entry was a portrait of artist Walter Kethmiller. The following year, he
exhibited a chloride photograph titled Claire de Lune in the third SCC annual
salon. According to his widow, Sunami, like Fred Yutaka Ogasawara, was an
out-of-state member of SCC. He later worked for the Museum of Modern Art and
produced over 20,000 large-format negatives for the museum's archives. Soichi
Sunami died on November 12, 1971.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/6 | Sunami1a-c |
Portrait of Dr. Kyo Koike 3 copies.
|
1921 |
Photos collected or displayed by the Seattle Camera Club: Identified PhotographersReturn to Top
These photographers were likely connected to the Seattle Camera Club, probably through correspondence and exchange of photos for exhibits.
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
John Bertram Eaton John Bertram Eaton was born in England and emigrated to
Australia with his family eight years later. His father ran a small gallery and
framing shop in Melbourne, where Eaton began work. In the early 1920s his
photographs were included in local and international exhibitions, and in 1921
he joined the Victorian Pictorial Workers Society. Four years later he held a
solo exhibition of 124 photographs, nearly all of them landscapes. He became a
founding member of the Melbourne Camera Club and remained a prolific exhibitor
into the late 1940s.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/7 | Eaton1 | 1928 | |
James Wallace Pondelicek James Wallace Pondelicek was an award winning pictorialist
photographer from Chicago who was active during the 1920's. His photographs
often consisted of Art Deco fantasy-themed idyllic nudes typically taken along
the shores of Lake Michigan and high society commercial portraiture of
Chicago's rich and beautiful. His work appeared in the Art Deco era periodicals
Theater Magazine and Shadowland - Expressing the Arts. As the onset of the
Great Depression made work scarce, and in the midst of a messy divorce from his
wife, the artist killed himself by a self inflicted gunshot in 1929.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/8 | Pondelicek1 | 1923 | |
Rovere Scott Rovere Scott worked in San Francisco and lived in Berkeley.
|
|||
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/9 | Scott1 | circa 1923 | |
| 1/9 | Scott2 | circa 1920s | |
| 1/9 | Scott3 | undated | |
| 1/9 | Scott4 | circa 1920s-1930s | |
| 1/9 | Scott5 | circa 1930 | |
Photos collected or displayed by the Seattle Camera Club: Unidentified PhotographersReturn to Top
These photographers, although unidentified, were likely connected to the Seattle Camera Club, probably through correspondence and exchange of photos for exhibits.
| Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box/Folder | item | ||
| 1/10 | UN1 |
View of lake and forest through trees Printed on photo: S.K.
|
undated |
| 1/10 | UN2 | undated | |
| 1/10 | UN3 | undated | |
| 1/10 | UN4 | undated | |
| 1/10 | UN5 | undated |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Mountains--United States--Photographs
- Photographers--Washington (State)--Seattle
- Ships--California--San Francisco--Photographs
- Trees--United States--Photographs
- Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)
Personal Names
- Koike, Kyo, 1878 or 1879-1947--Photographs
Corporate Names
- Seattle Camera Club
- Seattle Camera Club--Archives
- Seattle Camera Club--Photographs
Other Creators
-
Personal Names
- Chatani, Louis N., 1881-1968 (photographer)
- Haffer, Virna (photographer)
- Kira, Hiromu, 1898- (photographer)
- Matsuki, Kusatora, 1879- (photographer)
- Morinaga, Yukio, 1888-1968 (photographer)
- Ogasawara, Fred, 1883- (photographer)
- Sunami, Soichi, 1885-1971 (photographer)
