Asahi Camera

Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ, Asahi kamera) was a Japanese monthly photographic magazine,[1] published from April 1926 until July 2020,[2] when it was discontinued due to declining circulation.[3]

History and profile

The first issue was that for April 1926.[4][5] It was from the outset published by Asahi Shinbun-sha, publisher of the newspaper Asahi Shinbun. The headquarters was in Tokyo.[5]

From the January 1941 issue, it merged with the magazines Geijutsu Shashin Kenkyū (芸術写真研究, "Technique Photograph Studies") and Shōzō Shashin Kenkyū (肖像写真研究, "Portrait Photograph Studies"). Publication was suspended with the April 1942 issue.

Publication resumed after the Second World War with the October 1949 issue. Its cover employed a monochrome portrait of a girl by Ihei Kimura, who would become a major contributor.

For much of the period 1962–85, the job of photographing the cover was given to a single photographer for four or more consecutive months.[6]
yearmonthsphotographer
1962 Jan–DecKichisaburō Anzai
1963 Jan–DecMasaaki Imamura
1964 Jan–AprNoriaki Yokosuka
May–AugNaoya Sugiki
Sep–DecHiroki Hayashi
1965 Jan–AprHideki Fujii
May–AugHiroshi Nagaoka
Sep–DecToshio Tateishi
1966 Jan–AprMasaaki Nishimiya
May–AugShigeji Asano
Sep–DecKazumi Kurigami
1967–8 not applicable
1969 Jan–DecKazumi Kurigami
1970 Jan–DecDaidō Moriyama
1971 Jan–DecUmihiko Konishi
1972 Jan–DecKishin Shinoyama
1973 Jan–DecYutaka Takanashi
1974 Jan–DecAkira Satō
1975 Jan–DecHajime Sawatari
1976 Jan–DecShin Yanagisawa
1977 Jan–DecShunji Ōkura
1978 not applicable
1979 Jan–DecAkira Satō
1980 Jan–DecTakamasa Inamura
1981 Jan–DecKōichi Inakoshi
1982 Jan–JunBishin Jūmonji
Jul–DecNoriaki Yokosuka
1983 Jan–DecHajime Sawatari
1984 not applicable
1985 Jan–DecHajime Sawatari

Asahi Camera attempted to satisfy interests in all areas of photography, with short portfolios in monochrome and color by established and new photographers (most but not all of them Japanese), contests for readers, articles about technique, and (accounting for much of the magazine's bulk) news and tests of equipment. The April 2006 issue, for example, had over four hundred pages (many of them advertising, but the great majority editorial) with five or more pages devoted to work by each of ten photographers, the announcement of the latest Kimura Ihei Award, articles about equipment (new, old and even future), contests, and much else.

Even if one considers only its uninterrupted years of publication, from 1949, Asahi Camera was the oldest surviving Japanese photography magazine. Like any magazine that attempts to satisfy people with very different interests, it was sometimes criticized for not serving any of them particularly well, but its equipment reviews appeared to be as rigorous as any and it continued to attract some of the best photographers for its portfolios. Like many photographic magazines, many of its covers somehow happenned to show conventionally attractive young women (sometimes nude), and the overall impression it gave was unadventurous, but daring was a rare commodity in the Japanese magazine market and Asahi Camera did display work that cannot be regarded as at all commercial.

Since the demise of Camera Mainichi in 1985, the only rival as a magazine attempting to cater for all photographic interests became Nippon Camera.

From its 1926 start until around 1932, in addition to the katakana title, the magazine was prominently titled in English, Asahi Camera: The Japanese Journal of Photography. A shortened version, Asahi Camera, continued as an alternative title until late in the twentieth century but then was written "ASAHICAMERA".

Notes
  1. While "Asahi" was consistently written in kanji (viz. 朝日) for the newspaper title, the titles of most of the publisher's other periodicals and imprints, and the publisher's name itself, the Japanese title of Asahi Camera was consistently in katakana.
  2. Philbert Ono (2 June 2020). "Asahi Camera mag ceasing publication". PhotoGuide Japan. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  3. 『アサヒカメラ』休刊のお知らせ (Notice of cessation of Asahi Camera), Asahi Shinbunsha, June 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2020
  4. During the twentieth century, Japanese monthly magazines routinely came out in the month before the cover date, or even the month before that.
  5. The Far East and Australasia 2003. Psychology Press. 2002. p. 626. ISBN 978-1-85743-133-9. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  6. "Hyōshi ni miru Asahi Kamera no rekishi" (表紙にみるアサヒカメラの歴史, "The history of Asahi Camera as seen in its covers"), Asahi Camera, April 2006, pp. 233–44.
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