Iwao Yamawaki

Iwao Yamawaki (山脇 巌, Yamawaki Iwao, 29 April 1898–8 March 1987), born Iwao Fujita in Nagasaki, was a Japanese photographer and architect who trained at the Bauhaus.
He studied architecture at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, now the Tokyo University of the Arts from 1921 to 1926.
After his graduation he worked as an architect for the Yokogawa Construction Company and began to take photographs, which he submitted to the publications and competitions of Kenchiku gakkai (the Society for Architectural Research).
In 1926 he founded the Ningyō-za theatre in Tokyo with Koreya Senda (1904-1994) and others, and became involved with Tan'i sanka, an avant-garde artists' group, where he met the Bauhaus student Sadanosuke Nakada (1888-1970), and where he later became friends with Takehiko Mizutani (1898-1969), the first Japanese student to study at the Bauhaus. He was active in theatre circles as a costume and set designer.
He was formally introduced to Michiko Yamawaki (1910-2000), an heiress and the eldest daughter of a wealthy businessman, whom he married in 1928. He was asked to adopt her family name, which he did in return for the opportunity to study at the Bauhaus.
In May 1930 Iwao and Michiko left Japan for New York, where they spent two months, before travelling to Berlin, where they were reunited with Koreya Senda, who had already been living in Berlin for about two years. Senda, a politically active socialist, was involved with underground theatre in Berlin, and with the Japanese artistic community in the city, which he introduced the Yamawaki's to.
In October 1930 the couple began Josef Albers' first semester preliminary course at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In April 1931 Michiko went on to study in the weaving workshop and Iwao initally studied architecture, but a few months later he changed to the photography course taught by Walter Peterhans. Iwao developed a close friendship with fellow student and later Bauhaus teacher Kurt Kranz. Kranz was interested in photomontage and introduced Yamawaki to it.
Iwao Yamawaki had a strong interest in architectural photography and took many photographs of the exterior and interior of the famous Bauhaus Dessau building complex. His photographs are strongly influenced by the Neues Sehen (New Vision), an avantgarde movement of the 1920s and 1930s espoused by Bauhaus teacher László Moholy-Nagy, which encouraged photography of ordinary scenes using unfamiliar perspectives and angles, close-up details, use of light and shadow, and experimentation with multiple exposure.
The couple remained until the Bauhaus Dessau closed at the end of August 1932, when they returned to Japan.