Hiromu Kira

mounted to black paper, mounted again, signed in ink on the second mount, credit and title in pencil, notations in blue crayon, and a Mostra Fotografica Internazionale, 1931 exhibition label on the reverse, 1928

Christie's Los Angeles, 26 June 1997, Sale 8674, Lot 77

Milan, Mostra Fotografica Internazionale, 1931

Pictorialism in California: Photographs 1900-1940 (J. Paul Getty Museum and the Huntington Library, 1994), pl. 87

This print, on matte-surface paper, is in generally excellent condition. In raking light, the following are visible: age-appropriate silvering in the dark areas at the edges and a few deposits of original retouching. Upon close examination, light wear and a few attendant chips at the edges of the image are visible. The photograph is mounted to black paper that is trimmed nearly to the image. It is mounted again to card, and the corners of the larger secondary mount are creased and worn. On the reverse of the mount are the following annotations in an unknown hand in pencil or blue crayon: 'Hiromu Kira, F. R. P. S.' (Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society) '256 E. First St., Los Angeles, Calif.'; '39/4' [circled]; '2'; and '6P./36.' Also on the reverse are cloth tape remnants and a few scattered abrasions.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Hiromu Kira was among a group of Japanese-American photographers on the West Coast of the United States who comprise a small but interesting chapter in the history of the medium.  Organized loosely around the camera clubs in such cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, they were influential both as photographers and collectors. Among the earliest buyers of Edward Weston's work, for instance, were members of the Japanese Camera Pictorialists of California, centered in Los Angeles's Japantown. 

Kira came to America from Japan when he was a teenager and eventually settled in Seattle. In 1924, he helped to found Seattle's camera club, where he was a leading light in Pictorialist photography.  A move to Los Angeles in 1926, and exposure to the photographs of Weston and others, coincided with a new direction in his work. He became well-known for his modernist studies of glassware and of origami birds placed on abstract backgrounds, which were widely shown in the salons of the day.  Layering precisely-cut cardboard of different shapes and colors, Kira created a bold geometric platform on which to place the delicate origami birds.  An authority on Japanese-American photography, Dennis Reed, to whom this entry is indebted, has called these elegantly formal studies 'an original blend of the Occidental and the Oriental.'