Soichi Sunami

The recorded working language is Japanese. Places of work recorded in the authority are Seattle and New York City. Work by Soichi Sunami is recorded in the collections of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Photography Collection, J. Paul Getty Museum and Bryn Mawr College Special Collections.

• Name — Soichi Sunami • Native Name — Sunami Sōichi (角南 壮一) • Born — 18 February 1885 • Birthplace — Okayama Prefecture, Japan • Died — 12 November 1971 • Place of death — New York City, USA • Occupation — Photographer • Spouse — Suyeko Matsushima Sunami (married 1945–1971) • Children — John Soichi Sunami and Reiko Sunami Kopelson • Illustration — Martha Graham's "Heretic" by Soichi Sunami • Illustration — Stefan Hirsch by Soichi Sunami

Born in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, on February 18, 1885, he emigrated to the United States in 1905. In 1907 he arrived in Seattle, where he studied under Dutch impressionist painter Fokko Tadama. By 1918, he had shifted his artistic focus to photography after working alongside Wayne Albee and Frank Kunishige for photographer Ella E. McBride, the last two of whom were fellow members of the Seattle Camera Club, an association largely made up of Japanese-American immigrant photographers. He also won several awards from an art salon hosted by Frederick & Nelson, a local department store. By 1922, he had moved to New York City, where he briefly worked for photographer Nickolas Muray before enrolling at the Art Students League, alongside classmate Alexander Calder, under the primary tutelage of Ashcan painter John Sloan, after whom he would later name his son. It was in New York that he made the acquaintance of the author Anaïs Nin, and thereafter produced many of the photographs of her included in her books. For nearly forty years (from 1930 until 1968) he was the main archival photographer at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, a position that helped him avoid internment during World War II. His friends and admirers included artist Natalie Hays Hammond and MoMA founder Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He became an American citizen on August 5, 1957, and died on November 12, 1971. Several members of his family followed him into the arts, including son John Soichi Sunami (a public artist), his son-in-law Robert Kopelson (pianist), his granddaughter Julia Kopelson (photographer), his granddaughter Jennifer Sunami (graphic design), his grandson Christopher Andrew-Soichi Sunami (organizer of the Columbus Invitational Arts Competition), and his granddaughter-in-law April Sunami (painter).