KEN OHARA | OFFSCREEN PARIS 2026

Collected into a telephone-book like tome, Ohara’s indexical artist book was originally published by Tsukiji Shokan in 1970. When he saw the book, Avedon encouraged Ohara to take a copy to the renowned photography curator John Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art. In a subsequent letter, Szarkowski wrote to Avedon, “The Ohara book is a very strange experience indeed. I don’t really know quite what to make of it, but I think that somehow everyone should look at it.” The curator did his best to make this happen — the artist book was made available at the MoMA bookstore and in 1974 Szarkowski included Ohara in the exhibition New Japanese Photography. 

Nearly twenty years later, photography had expanded into monumental scales and Ohara revisited the series, selecting sixteen portraits for GRAIN (1993). Ohara prepared enlarged sheets from the negatives produced for the ONE series. Originally printed at 27 x 21.9 cm in GRAIN the works were recomposed into 9 by 9 grids, forming large 240 x 197.2 cm portraits made of a compilation of 81 individual prints.

Ohara was born in Japan in 1962 and moved to the US when he was 19. His works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, The Museum of Modern Art, The Getty, LACMA, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, Fotomuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Collection/ Museum and others. 

Selected solo exhibitions include The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2025); Museum Folkwang, Essen (2006–07); selected group exhibitions include San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2019); Thomas Walther Photography Collection, Dessau-Robau (2012); Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne (2010); The Metropolitan Museum, New York (2004); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (1999–2000); and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1974). His works are held in collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, among others.