HIRO, Content Projects

About Hiro

Two weeks ago on a misty wet Sunday morning in rural Pennsylvania I visited Hiro. As I drove past the August farm stands we stopped at over the years I knew this would be the last time I saw him. A week later he passed on.

I began working with Hiro in December 2004 a few months after my work with Richard Avedon ended when he died. I had no idea my professional relationship with Hiro would span the next 17 years.

Hiro was a Japanese-American photographer. He was born Yasuhiro Wakabayashi in Shanghai on November 3, 1930 to Japanese parents. The events of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) surrounded his youth. When World War Two concluded Hiro returned to Japan from China with his family as a teenager.

In 1954, inspired by western publications circulating in Japan, Hiro gathered a student visa, a host family, funds, and the courage to pursue his goals. His modest means and knowledge of the English language did not deter him. He took a boat to California, a bus to New York, and began to study at the School of Modern Photography. Hiro's determination and clear goal to be an image maker fueled his lifelong journey.

Two years later in 1956 after working for a few photographers Hiro began working for photographer Richard Avedon. Avedon introduced Hiro to the Harper's Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch who invited Hiro to his “Design Laboratory” program at the New School.

Hiro soon launched his photography career in a building he would share with Avedon over the next 10 years. March 1958 saw Hiro's first still life images of drinking glasses in Harper’s Bazaar followed by women’s shoes in the April issue. Almost every issue for the next two decades featured his work. Photography and print publications were at the pinnacle of modern culture in those times.

Seven decades later Hiro’s reach had expanded to international publications, commercial clients, and art spaces. Hiro pushed the limits of technology and the visual language of his day through portraiture, fashion, still life, and reportage. There is so much to be said about Hiro as a creative visionary and a remarkable person. His role as the owner and manager of his creative business and brand is equally notable. 

From my own experience, as a manager he allowed me to grow within his business, gradually leave, and return in new capacities. Like a traditional mentor he taught by example in return for my work.

I learned more than I could ever hope for as I worked side-by-side him through the creative process and as he conducted client business with self awareness and grace. Hiro balanced demanding creative goals with a clear mission to enjoy life. He would sometimes say, "Why am I doing this?" as a way to investigate ones motives and alignment with the task, job, or endeavor.

We worked through the day, but we always stopped for an unhurried lunch and rarely worked past normal hours. His client boundaries and expectations were clear. His personal life was as important to him as his commercial work. Hiro, like Avedon, lived with a passion for work and life with intention.

—Cameron Sterling, August 2021