Hiro: Photographs

Hiro (born in 1930) is known for his distinctively conceived and precisely realized images across a range of subjects including fashion, portraiture, and still life. Born Yasuhiro Wakabayashi in Shanghai to Japanese parents, he grew up in China and spent the years following WWII in Japan before coming to the US in 1954. 

Early in his career, Hiro worked as an assistant for the celebrated photographer Richard Avedon who, upon recognizing Hiro’s talents, introduced him to Alexey Brodovitch, the legendary art director of Harper’s Bazaar. By the early 1960s Hiro had become a widely admired figure in the field. His work was known for its originality and technical innovation, with bold uses of light and color, and an elegant sense of surrealism. 

This exhibition focuses on a selection of Hiro’s fashion images that demonstrate how he applied his unique visual aesthetic to the work of fashion and jewelry designers such as Halston, Pierre Cardin, Harry Winston, and Elsa Peretti, among others. This will be the first solo exhibition of Hiro’s work to be held in a major American museum.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website