Friday, June 13, 2025 – Wednesday, August 6, 2025
This exhibition, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Shadai Gallery, features the work of Wynn Bullock (1902-1975), whose solo exhibition was the inaugural event of the gallery in 1975.
Wynn Bullock was born in Chicago and, after graduation from high school, he moved to New York to pursue a career in music. He studied vocal music in Europe in the mid-1920s, and was active as a professional tenor. While living in Paris, he was drawn to the work of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists; he later encountered the work of Man Ray (1890-1976) and László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) and began to practice photography. In 1938, at the age of 36, he entered the photography program at the ArtCenter School in Los Angeles; after graduation, he worked as a commercial photographer while producing works of experimental photography using techniques such as solarization. In 1948, he met Edward Weston (1886-1958), and under his strong influence, he devoted himself to straight photography. He used an 8 x 10 large-format camera to shoot scenes near his home, and he became known for producing beautiful, richly toned monochrome prints.
In The Family of Man exhibition, which was mounted in 1955 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Bullock’s Child in Forest was the first photograph exhibited among the 503 works selected from around the world. That exhibition traveled until 1962 to 38 countries and was seen by record-breaking audiences that totaled some 9 million people. Another photograph, Let There Be Light, was selected as the favorite photograph in the exhibition in a poll of 65,000 people conducted by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.
At the time of the 1975 exhibition, Bullock was considered a master American photographer and his work was often featured in Japanese photography magazines, but there were very few opportunities to view original prints. Hosoe Eikoh (1933-2024), the founder of the Shadai Gallery, visited Bullock in the United States in 1972. Bullock showed him original prints, which left a profound impression. This experience led him to plan a Wynn Bullock exhibition as the inaugural event for the Shadai Gallery, the first permanent institution to collect and exhibit original prints in Japan. He planned to invite Bullock to Japan and to hold a grand celebration of the founding of the gallery on the first day of the exhibition. However, at that time, Bullock was recovering from surgery for cancer, and his doctor forbid him from traveling overseas, so he was unable to come. As Hosoe had anticipated, the original Bullock prints were eye-opening to those who attended the exhibition, which was very popular.
The present exhibition features prints from the Shadai Gallery collection and, with the cooperation of the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, additional prints have been added to the 35 that were exhibited in 1975. Please take this opportunity to view the finest quality original prints of Wynn Bullock, whose work continues to be exhibited throughout the world, 50 years after his death.
Planned and curated by Katsukura Ryota
Wynn Bullock
Let there Be Light, 1954
Gelatin silver print
Wynn Bullock
Driftwood, 1951
Gelatin silver print
Wynn Bullock
Tide Pool, 1957
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Sea Palms, 1968
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Woman on Sand, 1972
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Erosion, 1959
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Point Lobos Tide Pools, 1972
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Pebble Beach, 1970
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Point Lobos Rock, 1973
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Rocks, Hens and Chicken, 1969
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Rock, 1971
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Rock, 1973
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
The Mast, Cannery Row, 1968
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Pilings under Cannery Row, 1958
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Boy Fishing, 1958
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
The Pilings, 1958
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
The Shore, 1966
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Stefan, 1954
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Child on Forest Road, 1958
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Child and the Unknown, 1955
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Woman and Dog in Forest, 1953
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Child in the Forest, 1951
Gelatin silver print
Wynn Bullock
Lynne, Logs and Doll, 1958
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Girl on Beach, 1968
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Barbara, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Woman and Thistle, 1953
Gelatin silver print
Wynn Bullock
Barbara through Window, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Kay, 1958
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
A Navigation without Numbers, 1957
Gelatin silver print
Wynn Bullock
Jeanne, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Woman Behind Cobwebbed Window, 1955
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Eric, 1955
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Girl in Car, 1960
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Self-Portrait, 1971
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Old Fence, 1967
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Worm Design, 1951
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Old Typewriter, 1951
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Christmas at Sandy’s, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Tail Lights, 1968
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Half an Apple, 1953
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Light #1, 1952
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Mimi and Cat, Solarized, 1935
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Photogram, 1970
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Nude Solarization, 1953
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Night Scene, 1959
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Wood Form, 1972
Gelatin silver print
Wynn Bullock
Sycamore, 1972
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Wood, 1971
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Woman’s Hands, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Tree Trunk, 1971
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Del Monte Forest, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Log and Horsetails, 1957
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Twin Oaks, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Cactus, 1958Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Two Thistle, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
Wynn Bullock
Stark Tree, 1956
Gelatin silver print
Collection : Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
