Yoichi Okamoto
{{Short description|American photographer}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Yoichi Okamoto
| native_name = {{nobold|岡本 陽一}}
| image = Yoichi Okamoto.jpg
| caption = Okamoto photographing himself in the mirror at the L.B.J. Ranch in Stonewall, Tex. Jan. 2, 1964.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1915|7|5}}
| birth_place = Yonkers, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|4|24|1915|7|5}}
| death_place = Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
| office = Chief Official White House Photographer
| term_start = 1963
| term_end = 1969
| president = Lyndon B. Johnson
| predecessor = Cecil W. Stoughton
| successor = Oliver F. Atkins
| occupation = Photojournalist
}}
{{Nihongo|Yoichi Robert Okamoto|岡本 陽一|Okamoto Yoichi|July 5, 1915{{snds}}April 24, 1985}}National Archives, Picturing the Century,"[https://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/picturing-the-century.html]" was the first official U.S. presidential photographer,{{Cite web |last=Estrin |first=James |date=2013-12-10 |title=Photographing the White House From the Inside |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/photographing-the-white-house-from-the-inside/ |access-date=2023-08-25 |website=Lens Blog |language=en}} serving Lyndon B. Johnson.
Early life
Okamoto was a native of Yonkers, New York.{{Cite web|url=https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/photographing-the-white-house-from-the-inside/|title=Photographing the White House From the Inside|last=Estrin|first=James|date=2013-12-10|website=Lens Blog|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-21}} His father, Chobun Yonezo Okamoto, was a wealthy exporter, book publisher and real estate businessman who came from Japan to the United States in 1904.{{Cite web|url=http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2018/10/11/yoichi-okamoto/|title=The Man Behind the Camera: The story of Yoichi Okamoto, LBJ's Shadow|last=Oct 2018|first=Greg Robinson / 11|website=Discover Nikkei|language=en|access-date=2019-01-21}} His mother's name was Shina. Okamoto spent three years in Japan as a child. He attended Roosevelt High School and Colgate University and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. During part of the time during World War II he was the official photographer of General Mark Clark. After the war, he joined the United States Information Agency.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/yoichi-okamoto-lyndon-johnsons-photographer|title=Yoichi Okamoto, Lyndon Johnson's Photographer|last=Pomerantz|first=James|date=2012-03-28|access-date=2019-01-21|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}
Career
In 1955 curator Edward Steichen chose Okamoto's United States Information Service photograph of Harald Kreutzberg for the world-touring Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man that was seen by 9 million visitors.{{Citation | editor1=Hurm, Gerd | editor2=Reitz, Anke| editor3=Zamir, Shamoon | title=The family of man revisited : photography in a global age | publication-date=2018 | publisher=London I.B.Tauris | isbn=978-1-78672-297-3 }}{{Citation | author1=Sandeen, Eric J | title=Picturing an exhibition : the family of man and 1950s America | year=1995 | publication-date=1995 | publisher=University of New Mexico Press | edition=1st | isbn=978-0-8263-1558-8 }} His tightly cropped, three-quarter-face portrait,{{Cite web|url=http://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=672232|title=Österreichische Nationalbibliothek - Salzburger Festspiele 1950|website=www.bildarchivaustria.at|access-date=2019-10-30}} previously published in Popular Photography shows Kreutzberg at the 1950 Salzburg Festival in rehearsals for the performance of the play Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal in which Kreutzberg played the devil.{{Cite book | author1=Steichen, Edward | author2=Sandburg, Carl | author3=Norman, Dorothy | author4=Lionni, Leo | author5=Mason, Jerry | author6=Stoller, Ezra | author7=Museum of Modern Art (New York) | title=The family of man: The photographic exhibition | publication-date=1955 | publisher=Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10809600 }}
In 1961, Okamoto was invited to accompany then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson on a trip of Berlin as his official photographer. Admiring the photography from the trip, the Vice President requested that Okamoto be used for future events. When Johnson became president, he asked Okamoto to become the official photographer for the White House, which Okamoto accepted on condition that he would have unlimited access to the President. He was fondly known as "Oke",{{Cite web |last=Estrin |first=James |date=2013-12-10 |title=Photographing the White House From the Inside |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/photographing-the-white-house-from-the-inside/ |access-date=2023-08-25 |website=Lens Blog |language=en}} and was given unprecedented access to the Oval Office.PBS, The President's Photographer 50 Years in the Oval Office,"[https://www.pbs.org/programs/presidents-photographer/]" He captured images of the President of the United States, more candid than had been previously acceptable.{{Cite web|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-one-photographers-finally-convinced-a-president-to-give-him-full-access|title=How One Photographer Finally Convinced a President to Give Him Full Access|last=Laskow|first=Sarah|date=2016-05-04|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en|access-date=2019-01-21}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/white-house-photographers-presidents-artsy/index.html|title=How White House photographers have shaped the image of the President|last=Weiss|first=Haley|date=2019-01-21|website=CNN Style|language=en|access-date=2019-01-21}}
Because of his ability to be present at almost any event, more photos of the Johnson presidency are available than from any earlier term of office. He took an estimated 675,000 photographs during the Johnson presidency. The 1990 coffee table book LBJ: The White House Years[https://web.archive.org/web/20121105191622/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1118465.html Washington Post, Personalities by Chuck Conconi, March 30, 1990,"] by Harry Middleton consists primarily of images taken by Okamoto.
After finishing as the White House official photographer, Okamoto opened a private photofinishing business called Image Inc. in Washington D.C.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1985/04/25/photographer-yoichi-okamoto-dies-at-69/49e170df-c57b-420e-b6b9-6963f3fd66b4/|title=Photographer Yoichi Okamoto Dies at 69|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2019-01-21|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}} He worked alongside his wife, Paula Okamoto.
Personal life
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commons category}}
- [http://www.life.com/image/50540495 Life Magazine photo of Yoichi Okamoto]
- [https://www.presidentialpetmuseum.com/pets/yuki/ Photos of Johnson and dog Yuki by Yoichi Okamoto]
- [http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/photographing-the-white-house-from-the-inside/ NYTimes retrospective on Okamoto, including 16 photos]
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Category:20th-century American photographers
Category:Colgate University alumni
Category:United States Army soldiers
Category:Suicides by hanging in Maryland
Category:People from Yonkers, New York
Category:White House photographers
Category:Photographers from New York (state)