Detail of the Sitting Image of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Hall of Miroku, Muro-Ji, Nara

Ken Domon was a Japanese photographer whose stark black-and-white documentary work captured postwar Japan with unflinching clarity. Working primarily in the 1950s and 1960s, he employed large-format cameras to document rural communities, Buddhist temples, and the social upheaval of reconstruction. His commitment to photojournalism as social testimony established him as a foundational figure in Japanese documentary photography.