Kochi, southern Japan, is a city overlooking the small bay of Urado crossed by several rivers, and surrounded by mountains and rolling hills. It was this beautiful place, the farmer and amateur photographer Haruo Ohara sailed to Brazil aboard the ship Hawaii Maru in 1927. Nineteen years ago, steam Kasato Maru brought the first wave of Japanese immigrants to the country.

Photo: Haruo Ohara

Haruo Ohara (1909-1999) was not yet 18 years old, and according to his biographers Roger and Mark Ivano Losnak, authors of Labrador photos, a biography of Haruo Hara (SHOhara, 2003), went to a land where it was said grow "money tree", the coffee. This information is also in the text that historians sign in Haruo Ohara, published by Positive (2008) under the coordination of the photographer Orlando Azevedo, who also signs the curatorial and editorial project.

Haruo Ohara Photography, edition of the Instituto Moreira Salles (2008), was published to accompany the exhibition which was the SESI Gallery in February and March 2009, curated by Sergio Burgi, responsible for booking Technical Institute in Rio de Janeiro . The book has a poetic text by the journalist and photographer Marcos Sá Correia and images printed on both issues belong to the collection of IMS, donated by the family of the photographer.

Photo: Haruo Ohara

The edition is small Curitiba, in a format almost pocket, trilingual in Portuguese, Japanese and English. The edition of the IMS brings only text in Portuguese, has a larger format and is also in paperback like the other. While one is larger than the other, the spot image is practically identical, by exploiting the different layout. In common too, both the name of the wrong grafam Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante which this year celebrated its 70th anniversary activities, moreover, usually written in the plural.

Why two simultaneous editions of Ohara? Without considering the celebration of 100 years of Japanese immigration, just open any of the books, even randomly, and you get immediate response: the photographer is a rare diamond in the midst of so much coal. Or rather, a talented photographer who worked as a model farmer in the interior of Paraná. In fact, Ohara when he came to Brazil was to Cotia, São Paulo, where, tell his biographers, "the dream of wealth ended up in a potato patch."

Photo: Haruo Ohara

Without losing hope, the dream Ohara saw improvement after about three years of hard work, when his family had his piece of land beside the river Paranapanema, a small town which in 1934 began to take the name Londonderry. The city had a spontaneous colonization which began in 1904. Place of red earth and very fertile, now has nearly 500,000 inhabitants, but agriculture is still strong. It was there that he bought his first camera used from a friend who was also his first mestre.Em his diary he noted: "Of every ten shots, three were good."

One of his first pictures in 1938, was the portrait of his wife Kô, a field of oranges, in work clothes. The wife would be very portrayed until shortly before his death in 1973. Both she and her mother, her children, the grandmother, the in-laws and close friends are logged on the issue. Although certain formality, elegance and exudes Ohara already using neutral backgrounds, such as those used by Weston or Avedon. A blanket hanging on the clothesline was enough. The technique of natural light from distant background also gave him a wide range of tones he used wisely.

Photo: Haruo Ohara

In 1951, the photographer was a founder of Foto Cine Club London, the year that also fits the legendary Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, passed by names like Thomaz Farkas and German Lorca, and participates in numerous fairs and shows. In his vast work, a permanent Eastern view sees immediately where the study of the composition. Even when you play the photographer does not fail to also be bold. The accuracy of the lighting - constant - his world travels through more personal and family and extends to his landscapes, which despite the short radius of the distance gained an air of grandeur.

Haruo Ohara was honored in 1988 at 80 years of Japanese immigration. "It was not an immigrant, and yes, one of the pioneers of the construction of London" and Ivan have Losnak; in 2003 was remembered with a special room at the 12th edition of the Pirelli Collection-MASP in Sao Paulo. His grandson Ohara Saul received the award for him. Now they are two books that add to the numerous catalogs of clubs to do justice to this brilliant photographer, hidden among the crops, but could be one of the most universal photographers this country has ever seen.

Service
Haruo Ohara. Curatorial and editorial project of Orlando Azevedo; texts Ivano Roger, Mark and Orlando Azevedo Losnak. Positive Publisher.
Haruo Ohara Photos. Texts by Sergio Marcos Sá Correia and Burgi. Editing IMS ISBN-978-85-86707-29-2.

Juan Esteves, photographer, has been writing his articles since 1988 in the Folha de S. Paul. It was Iris Photo Magazine columnist and editor and columnist for the Fotosite. You Better Shoot magazine columnist and contributor to text and images for magazines such as Mitsubishi, Living Alone, Travel and More Cosac Naify. Now, the blog of Paraty in Focus, called Juan, all Fridays, unpublished or published - the last, with reprint and update made ​​especially for this blog.