Description: condition excellent, Japanese bromoil prints are exceedingly rare. From an archive of photographs by Hirogane discovered in Tokyo during the mid 1990s. Condition very good.

Yoshiro Hirogane
Born: 1894, died: unknown
Status: amateur

Hirogane was a talented pictorialist who financed his passion for photography through his professional life. Such avocation scenarios were commonplace with Japanese art photographers during the 1920s and 1930s. A corporate accountant by profession, Hirogane was born in Okayama City, the first son of Tamataro Hirogane. In 1916 he graduated from Tokyo Shogyo Koto Gakko (Tokyo Commercial High School) and upon graduating was employed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at their Nagoya Aircraft Manufacturing Division as a section chief accountant.

Hirogane is known to have resided in Nagoya as late as 1938, but it's not known exactly how long he remained there. But he was very fortunate to have been living in Nagoya which had a thriving photo art scene during the 1920s and 1930s. This was mostly centered around the Aiyu Shashin Club (Aiyu Photo Club), which was founded by Japanese photo greats Chotaro Hidaka and Matsutaro Ohashi. This group was dedicated to romantic landscape pictorialism, often times employing the use of pigment printing. It is possible (but only speculation) that Hirogane was in contact with this group as he used both silver gelatin and bromoil printing techniques. Many of the photos by him are of rural scenics as well as industrial views. It is now presumed most of these views were taken in and around Aichi Prefecture, where Nagoya City is located, including the industrial environs where he worked.