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Koichiro Kurita < personal histry/statement >
Born in Manchuria and educated in Japan,Koichiro Kurita made his commitment to
photography early in life. First working in the 1960s for an advertising agency in Tokyo,He
became an independent commercial photographer for such diverse client as Takashimaya,Sharp
Electronics and Kanebo Cosmetics until 1983. Then,at age 40,Kurita began to emerge as a fine
art photographer. In 1990, a grant from the Asian Cultural Council (part of the Jhon D.Rockefeller
Found) allowed him to concentrate on his artistic interests, and within the year he had his first
solo exhibition in the United States. In 1993 Kurita moved from Japan to live permanently in New
York, but he has traveled extensively, taking photographs throughout the US,Canada, the United
Kingdom and later in France as well.Wherever he works,regardless of local or terrain,Kurita's
vision remains focused on the elements of nature. He is not so much an enviormental advocate,
intent on capturing and preserving the beauty of nature(though he dose so),but rather he is more
a philosopher of life who finds solace in the contemplation of nature. "I believe that in nature,
the smallest things, or seemingly most insignificant phenomena, have their reason and their
role" he says. As Diogenes took his lantern, seeking an honest man, so Kurita uses his camera in
his search for honest answers to life's enigmas.
From the exhibition brochure of John Stevenson Gallery