Kimura Ihei Award

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The Kimura Ihei Award (木村伊兵衛写真賞, Kimura Ihei Shashin-shō) is a Japanese photographic award that attracts the attention of the mass media and book-buyers.

The award has been given every year since 1975 (except 1983) by the Asahi Shimbun Company, publisher of Asahi Shimbun and the magazine Asahi Camera, in honor of the photographer Ihei Kimura. It is given to one or more new photographers whose work has been exhibited or published during the previous year and is announced in the April issue of Asahi Camera: its original name, soon shortened, was Asahi Kamera Kimura Ihei Shashin-shō (アサヒカメラ木村伊兵衛写真賞).

The award is given for achievement during the previous year and is usually given to a single photographer; these have included Kazuo Kitai (1975), Naoya Hatakeyama (1996) and Kyōichi Tsuzuki (1997). In 2000, the unprecedented awarding of three prizes, each to a female photographer (Hiromix, Yurie Nagashima, and Mika Ninagawa) caused a stir.

Its major rival for attention in the mass media is the Domon Ken Award, given annually to a single photographer, usually one with a more solid background than those who win the Kimura Award.

[edit] Bibliography

(Japanese) Kimura Ihei Shashinshō no nijūnen (『木村伊兵衛写真賞の20年』, "20 years of the Kimura Ihei Award". Mōru, 1995. ISBN 4-938628-17-1 With sample photographs from each of the award-winners (more from each of them than appear in the later, thirty-year compilation).
(Japanese) Sanjūroku fotogurafāzu: Kimura Ihei Shashinshō no sanjūnen (『36フォトグラファーズ：木村伊兵衛写真賞の30年』, "36 photographers: 30 years of the Kimura Ihei Award"). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun, 2005. ISBN 4-02-272303-3 With sample photographs from each of the award-winners.