Coliseo Gallo de Oro 2. (c) Hiroshi Watanabe
"A current that underlies my work is the concept of preservation. I make every effort to be a faithful visual recorder of the world around me, a world in flux that, at very least in my mind, deserves preservation, and that I constantly seek to expand"
HIROSHI WATANABE is a California-based Japanese photographer. Born in Sapporo, Watanabe graduated from Nihon University in photography in 1975 and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked producing television commercials. He obtained an MBA from UCLA in 1993, but two years later his earlier interest in photography revived; from 2000 he has worked full time at photography.
Watanabe's first published book was I See Angels Every Day, monochrome portraits of the patients and other scenes within San Lázaro psychiatric hospital in Quito, Ecuador. This won the 2007 Photo City Sagamihara award for Japanese professional photographers. In 2007 Watanabe won a Critical Mass award from Photolucida that allowed publication of his monograph Findings.
Hiroshi Watanabe is One of 8 winners in the current Hearst 8 X 10 Photography Biennial.
8 X 10 Exhibition : April 1-Sept. 2009 The Alexey Brodovitch and Hearst Gallery, Hearst Tower Galleries, 300 West 57th Street, NY, NY www.hearst8x10.com
Hiroshi Watanabe's photograph Vietnam War Memorial, Washington DC is included in George Eastman House Exhibition Seeing Ourselves through 2010. Podcast by George Eastman House: “SEEING OURSELVES”
Hiroshi Watanabe's Upcoming Exhibitions
June 18 –September 05, 2009 “Hot Fun in the Summertime” (Group Show)Bonni Benrubi Gallery 41 E. 57th Street 13th Floor, New York, NY 10022
July 1 – December 31, 2009 “Ideology in Paradise” Friends' Center, Angkor Hospital for Children, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Angkor Hospital for Children sponsored by Friends Without A Border is a Pediatric Hospital providing free treatment and care to the children in the Siem Reap area. Please donate to the Angkor Hospital for Children.
September 5 – October 28, 2009 "American Leitmotiv" (b&w photographs of the US) AD-Galerie, route de la Gare,1, 1272 Genolier, VD, Switzerland
Web: www.hiroshiwatanabe.com