Jiro Konami is a Japanese photographer based in New York. Preferring to work with analog film, Konami’s work is at once an homage to and departure from the old masters of Japanese photography. The artist’s subject matter ranges from portrait studies and still lives to glittering cityscapes. Characterized by vivid hues and bright flares of light, each frame conveys speed and precision attributed to the artist’s practice of determining what to shoot in an instant.
Konami graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University’s photography program in 2009, and became a research student until 2010. After graduation, the artist was obsessed with taking as many photos as he could. Though he received formal training, the artist credits his practice to his predecessors Daido Moriyama and Takuma Nakahira, who advised him respectively to “take one photo every three steps while walking,” and to “be a camera.” Taking this advice to heart, Konami’s true education began as a self-guided endeavor, shooting on the streets of Tokyo until his arrival in New York in 2017.
Konami has won several awards for his work, including the Prospect Prize at the EPSON Color Imaging Contest, and the Fuji Photo Salon the New Face Prize. He has collaborated with Supreme, Converse, Adidas Y-3, Moncler, Black Eye Patch, Nike, Yoji Yamamoto, Shu Uemura, Marc Jacobs, and Uniqlo. His work has been featured in The New York Times, i-D Magazine, Interview Magazine, Vogue JAPAN, and WIRED.
