Kazuo Kitai's First French Retrospective at Maison de la Culture du Japon

Kazuo Kitai, a major figure in Japanese photography long overshadowed in France by Nobuyoshi Araki and Daidō Moriyama, receives his first retrospective in the country at the Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, running from April 30 to July 25, 2026. The exhibition presents some 130 prints tracing his career from the 1960s student protests—documented in his book Résistance—to his later rural series Paysages vaguement familiers (1970–1973) and Vers les villages (1973–1981), which captured a disappearing Japan. Unlike contemporaries focused on urban change, Kitai turned his lens on marginalized communities, including farmers resisting Narita Airport construction. In the 1980s, he shifted to Tokyo suburbs with Funabashi Story (1983–1987). Now over 80, Kitai reworks his early prints by tearing and repainting them in his series Iroha, on view at Galerie Écho 119 from April 29 to July 11, 2026. The retrospective follows his participation in a Provoke exhibition at Le BAL in 2016.