Yuichi Hibi’s “No. 78, Gion” will be featured at “Imprint,” his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

Featured in this exhibition are Hibi’s mysterious black and white photographs of New York and Japan after dark taken in 1992 and 1993. Photographed using only available light Hibi’s images of the urban landscape depict a grainy world of light and shadow filled with strange objects and faceless individuals.  

Hibi graduated from Tokyo’s famed Nikkatsu School in 1985.  In 1986, he joined Japan’s highly-acclaimed theater group Bungaku-za, where he performed in many productions of classic works of drama.

In 1987, Producer David Puttnam (“Midnight Express”, “Killing Fields”, “My Life”, “So Far”) asked him to join a Japan-U.S. exchange film study program he founded where he learned the techniques of the cinematic masters.He studied directing in Puttnam’s program with Killing Fields director Roland Joffe. 

Hibi spent 10 years acting and directing in Japan. During this fertile period, he won a pivotal role in Akira Kurosawa’s internationally-renowned film, “Ran.”  After “Ran,” Hibi divided his creative time between photography and filmmaking.

He moved to New York in 1988 to continue his career in acting although he understood almost no English. He recalled that, “ I spent many late nights sitting in bars watching people, listening to conversations I did not understand.  I watched to be like one of them.”

When Hibi returned to Japan for an extended visit in 1992 he began to record his observations with a camera. He notes, “for the next eleven months I traveled the countryside of Japan by car, by train, by foot. I took many pictures. The camera became my eyes. I looked at the landscapes, places, and people.” 

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