Mary Koga
Mary Koga(néeMary Hisako Ishii,August 10, 1920 – June 8, 2001) was aJapanese-Americanphotographer and social worker in Chicago.
Life
[edit]Koga was born inSacramento, California,on August 10, 1920, and had been an avid photographer since she was a child. She concentrated on social work, however, and received aBAin 1942 from theUniversity of California at Berkeleyand a Master's degree in 1947 from theUniversity of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.DuringWorld War II,following the signing ofExecutive Order 9066,she was incarcerated in theinternment campatTule Lake[1]for a year because of her Japaneseethnicity.
From 1947 to 1969, she worked in the field of social work in Chicago, starting out as a case worker and eventually teaching as an Assistant Professor for Field Work at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, 1960–1969.
Koga then concentrated on photography, studied at theIIT Institute of Designand received aMFAfrom theSchool of the Art Institute of Chicagoin 1973. She then went on to teach photography atColumbia College Chicagofor seven years.
Mary Koga died in Chicago on June 8, 2001.[2]
Photography
[edit]Koga's photographic work consists mainly of three distinct series.
TheFloral Formsseries was begun in 1972 and went on into the 1990s. Done in both color as well as black and white, the images are delicate close-ups of mostly single flower heads, artfully arranged in the studio with tightly controlledlighting. On occasion, sheover exposedand usedmultiple exposureto emphasise the structure and/or color. Comparison has been made with the flower paintings ofGeorgia O'Keeffe.[3]
In parallel, between 1972 and 1980, Koga went to ruralAlbertato work on the seriesThe Hutterites.Her images show the members of the isolated religious community ofHutterites,who in many cases had been photographed for the first time.[3]
Koga's third big project,Portrait of the Issei in Illinois,consisted of images of the elderly first generation of Japanese immigrants, her parents' generation, in black and white as well as color photos. Between 1986 and 1989, Koga photographed them in the day care facility and the Senior Citizens Work Center of theJapanese American Service Committee(JASC) and at Heiwa Terrace, a Japanese American senior residence, both located in Chicago.[3]
References
[edit]- ^"Japanese American Internee Data File: Hisako M Ishii".National Archives and Records Administration.RetrievedAugust 18,2019.
- ^Abdur-Rahman, Sufiya (June 13, 2001),"Photographer and activist for Japanese-Americans",Chicago Tribune
- ^abc"Koga, Mary",Museum of Contemporary Photography,archived fromthe originalon September 10, 2015,retrievedMay 10,2024
- Mary Koga Photograph Collection
- Holdings at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, ChicagoArchivedMarch 8, 2021, at theWayback Machine
- Holdings at the Art Institute of Chicago
- Gerhard Bissell,Koga, Mary,in:Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon,vol. 80, 2013 (in preparation).
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