was a photography critic, curator, and magazine editor.

Yamagishi entered Mainichi Shinbunsha (publisher of Mainichi Shinbun

Mainichi Shimbun

The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by .-History:The history of the Mainichi Shimbun begins with founding of two papers during the Meiji period. The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was founded first, in 1872. The Mainichi claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper...

) in 1950. He started as a photographer, but was less successful at taking than at selecting photographs.

From 1963 until its July 1978 issue, Yamagishi edited Camera Mainichi

Camera Mainichi

is a Japanese monthly magazine of photography that started in June 1954 and ceased publication in April 1985.As in most mass-market photography magazines, much of the editorial content of Camera Mainichi was devoted to news and reviews of cameras, lenses, and other equipment...

, and was widely admired both for the quality of the photography he was able to present there and for the encouragement he gave to young photographers. During this period advertising was attracting some of the most talented photographers, and Yamagishi was particularly noted for the way in which he persuaded photographers working in advertising to pursue their own photographic interests during their spare time. As an editor (and curator), Yamagishi had the knack of evaluating and selecting photographs much faster than his peers.

Camera Mainichi was under much pressure from its publisher to make money, or at least not to lose money; the degree of pressure irked Yamagishi and was what caused him to resign.

Yamagishi worked with his friend John Szarkowski

John Szarkowski

John Szarkowski was a photographer, curator, historian, and critic. From 1962 to 1991 Szarkowski was the Director of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art.-Early life and career:...

 to mount two exhibitions of Japanese photography in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. "New Japanese Photography" (Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

, 1974) presented works by Ryōji Akiyama

Ryoji Akiyama

is a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, Ken Domon

Ken Domon

is one of the most renowned Japanese photographers of the twentieth century. He is most celebrated as a photojournalist, though he may have been most prolific as a photographer of Buddhist temples and statuary....

, Masahisa Fukase

Masahisa Fukase

, born 25 February 1934 in Hokkaidō, is a Japanese photographer.-Life:Among Fukase's early works was the "Kill the Pigs" concerning a slaughterhouse...

, Eikō Hosoe

Eikoh Hosoe

is a Japanese photographer and filmmaker who emerged in the experimental arts movement of post-World War II Japan. He is known for his psychologically charged images, often exploring subjects such as death, erotic obsession, and irrationality...

, Tetsuya Ichimura

Tetsuya Ichimura

Ichimura was born, with the family name Hamaguchi, in Nagasaki on 10 June 1930. As a young adult Ichimura moved to Tokyo, where he studied for a year at Nihon University, took various jobs, and chanced to meet Shōtarō Akiyama, who aroused his interest in photography....

, Yasuhiro Ishimoto

Yasuhiro Ishimoto

Ishimoto was born on 14 June 1921 in San Francisco, California, where his parents were farmers. In 1924, the family left the United States and returned to his parents' hometown within present-day Tosa, in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan...

, Bishin Jūmonji

Bishin Jumonji

is a photographer who has done advertising, portrait, architectural, and other work.Jumonji was born in Yokohama on 4 March 1947. After studying at the Tokyo College of Photography he worked as an assistant to Kishin Shinoyama and went freelance in 1971, when he was the cameraman for advertisements...

, Kikuji Kawada

Kikuji Kawada

is a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, Daidō Moriyama

Daido Moriyama

is a Japanese photographer noted for his images depicting the breakdown of traditional values in post-war Japan.- Life and career :Born in Ikeda, Osaka, Daidō Moriyama studied photography under Takeji Iwamiya before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as an assistant to Eikoh Hosoe...

, Masatoshi Naitō

Masatoshi Naito

is a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, Ikkō Narahara

Ikko Narahara

is a Japanese photographer. Born in Fukuoka, Narahara studied law at Chuo University and, influenced by statues of Buddha at Nara, art history at the graduate school of Waseda University ....

, Ken Ohara

Ken Ohara

is a renowned Japanese photographer.Ohara Ken is most noted for his series of photographs titled "One", in which he presents faces with a standard size and tone....

, Akihide Tamura

Akihide Tamura

is a Japanese photographer. He was born in Tokyo on 13 March 1947 as Shigeru Tamura . He studied at Tokyo College of Photography, graduating first in 1967 and then from a more advanced course two years later....

 (as Shigeru Tamura), Shōmei Tōmatsu

Shomei Tomatsu

is a Japanese photographer.Born Teruaki Tōmatsu in Nagoya in 1930, Tōmatsu studied economics at Aichi University, graduating in 1954. While still a student, he had his photographs published by the major Japanese photography magazines. He entered Iwanami and worked on the series Iwanami Shashin Bunko...

, and Hiromi Tsuchida

Hiromi Tsuchida

is a renowned Japanese photographer.Tsuchida has produced several collections of photographs of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He has produced many influential photo books such as Zokushin, counting the sand and new counting the sand and The Berlin Wall...

. "Japan, a Self-Portrait" (International Center of Photography

International Center of Photography

The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...

, 1979) presented works by Ryōji Akiyama, Nobuyoshi Araki

Nobuyoshi Araki

is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. He is also known by the nickname .-Life and career:Araki was born in Tokyo, studied photography during his college years and then went to work at the advertising agency Dentsu, where he met his future wife, the essayist Yōko Araki...

, Taiji Arita

Taiji Arita

was a Japanese commercial photographer. He exhibited non-commercial nudes and other work.-Life and career:Taiji Arita was born on January 31, 1941 in Kokura , Japan...

, Masahisa Fukase, Shinzō Hanabusa

Shinzo Hanabusa

is a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, Hiroshi Hamaya

Hiroshi Hamaya

was a renowned Japanese photographer.-Books of Hamaya's works:*Senkō shashinjutsu . Ars Shashin Bunko. Tokyo: Ars, 1941.*Ura Nihon . Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1957.*Henkyō no machi . Sekai Shashinka Shirīzu. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1957....

, Miyako Ishiuchi

Miyako Ishiuchi

, is a renowned Japanese photographer.Ishiuchi has produced collections of photography since the late 1970s. Her first book was a study of Yokosuka, where she grew up....

, Kikuji Kawada, Jun Morinaga

Jun Morinaga

is a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:*Nihon shashinka jiten / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese....

, Daidō Moriyama, Ikkō Narahara, Kishin Shinoyama

Kishin Shinoyama

is a Japanese photographer.Shinoyama graduated from Nihon University. He worked with the Light Publicity agency while still a student, and freelanced after graduation....

, Issei Suda

Issei Suda

is a Japanese photographer.Born in Tokyo in 1940, Suda graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography in 1962. From 1967 to 1970 he worked as the cameraman of the theatrical group Tenjo Sajiki, under Shūji Terayama. He has worked as a freelance photographer since 1971. Suda is a professor at Osaka...

, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Haruo Tomiyama

Haruo Tomiyama

is a versatile Japanese photographer, active since the 1960s.-Life and work:Born in Kanda on 25 February 1935, Tomiyama dropped out of evening high school in 1956 to study photography for himself....

, Hiromi Tsuchida, Shōji Ueda

Shoji Ueda

Ueda was born on 27 March 1913 in Sakai , Tottori. His father was a manufacturer and seller of geta; Shōji was the only child who survived infancy...

, Gashō Yamamura

Gasho Yamamura

was a renowned Japanese photographer.-References:...

, and Hiroshi Yamazaki.

Yamagishi suffered from intermittent depression. This was exacerbated by the pressures of making the selections for a Magnum

Magnum Photos

Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...

 exhibition in Tokyo, prompting his suicide.

Books edited by Yamagishi

• New Japanese photography (co-edited by John Szarkowski). New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1974. ISBN 0-87070-503-2 (hard), ISBN 0-87070-502-4 (paper)
• Japan, a self-portrait. New York: International Center of Photography, 1979. ISBN 0933642016 (hard), ISBN 0933642024 paper). (This should not be confused with the 2004 publication Japan, a self-portrait: Photographs 1945–1964, ed. Osamu Hiraki and Keiichi Takeuchi.)

Links, sources, further reading

• Nihon shashinka jiten . Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8.
• GJ Photobooks. Notes, on Shōji Yamagishi and Camera Mainichi among others.
• Short entry at PhotoGuide Japan
• Nishii Kazuo
  Kazuo Nishii
  was a Japanese magazine editor and photography critic.Nishii was born in Tokyo in 1946. He graduated in economics from Keio University in 1968, and shortly after this moved to the company publishing Mainichi Shimbun, rising via stints at Sunday Mainichi and Mainich Graph to become editor in chief...
  
  . Shashin-henshūsha: Yamagishi Shōji e no omāju . Tokyo: Mado-sha, 2002. ISBN 4-89625-038-9.