Ken Ohara was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1942. After studying photography at Nihon University, he moved to New York City in 1963. From 1966 to 1970, he worked as an assistant for renowned photographers Richard Avedon and Hiro. In 1970, his first book, 'ONE', received support from the photography curator of The Museum of Modern Art, John Szarkowski. His work was featured in the landmark 'New Japanese Photography' exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1974. Following a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1974, Ohara worked primarily as a commercial photographer for fifteen years. He reemerged as a prominent artist in the 1990s, participating in significant projects like 'Ghost in the Shell: Photography and the Human Soul' (1999/2000) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Ohara's work is characterized by extreme close-ups of the human face and body, seeking to capture both the social mask and the underlying human essence.[1,2]
