Pastoral nikkei: paisaje y diáspora en la fotografía de Haruo Ohara

Abstract

This contribution contains a reading of a series of ten black and white photographs by the farmer/amateur photographer/immigrant Haruo Ohara (1909- 1999), taken in the 1940s and 1950s. They portray scenes of daily life in a Japanese agricultural colony in Paraná, Brazil. The reading outlines the different dimensions of this triple perspective on a pastoral landscape, which expresses the wish to live on a territory in peaceful coexistence with the Brazilians. Ohara’s work is placed within the history and photographical technology of his time. His first exhibition took place posthumously, at the occasion of the centenary of Japanese immigration to Brazil in 2008.