Takeshi Ishidawa •  "THE HIJRAS: Third Gender of India", New Delhi, 1992

Todd Weinstein • Punk Rockers, NYC, 1980

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Takeshi Ishikawa Bio

Takeshi Ishikawa was born on the Shikoku island in Japan in 1950. He graduated from Tokyo Visual Arts in 1971.

In September 1971, on the streets of Tokyo, he accidentally ran into W. Eugene Smith, who was in Japan working on the Minamata Project. This chance encounter ended up in Ishikawa becoming Smith’s assistant. In November 1974, the Minamata Project ended in Japan, and the days of being W. Eugene Smith’s assistant also ended. Ishikawa followed W. Eugene Smith to New York when he moved there in March 1975, and in New York, he lived in Smith’s apartment, ran his errands, and saw through the publication of the photobook MINAMATA and the photo exhibition at the ICP. Ishikawa became a freelance photographer in 1975.

In 1980, he began photographing the hijra, the transgender community in India. In 1988, he had his photo exhibition HIJRAS at the Minolta Gallery in Japan. In 1995, the photobook HIJRA was published by the publishing house SEIKYUSYA in Japanese. Ishikawa has been photographing the hijras in India, the sadhus in Hinduism, and pursuing other themes all of whom juxtapose the sanctity and dignity of human beings with their blasphemy and destruction.