BIGEI

Born in 1942 in Nagoya City.
After graduating from Nagoya Municipal Technical High School, he aspired to become a photographer and studied under Fujiichi Ogawa, a photographer based in Nagoya. Some still-life photographs he took at around age 18 were later published. Subsequently, he moved to Tokyo and in 1962 began working as an assistant to photographer Takashi Kishima.

In 1963, he became an independent freelance photographer.

In 1969, he traveled to the United States for the Heibon Punch magazine’s New York special issue and shot the NY1969 series. Following this, he held a solo exhibition titled FUCK at the DIC Building Gallery of Dai Nippon Printing, showcasing performance art photography with innovative techniques, which brought him sudden attention.

From the 1970s onward, while actively working across various genres including commercial photography, portraits, and nudes, he also produced many significant works capturing diverse locations such as Okinawa and the Silk Road.

In 1972, he participated in the exhibition “Ten Photographers on the Subject Simon Yotsuya,” and in 2016 he photographed Simon Yotsuya again.

Exhibitions / SHUMOKU GALLERY
2015: Still Life at Age 18
2016: New York 1969
2017: TENMEI×SIMON