Biography

Yuichi Hibi (born 1964, Nagoya City, Japan) is a Japanese fine art photographer currently living and working out of New York City. Prior to moving to the United States, Hibi trained as a stage and film actor as well as a filmmaker in Japan. In 1988, Hibi moved to New York City, knowing very little English, to further his acting career. For him, the city was bleak, grimy and alienating, the New York of “Taxi Driver” and “Midnight Cowboy,” gritty films he had watched as a teenager in Japan. As an import he found himself to be a natural outsider to the culture he was trying to become a part of. He began making photographs and within that work he evoked a sense of longing and isolation and understanding of things that often are overlooked. He returned to Japan in the early 1990s to find everything he once had known had changed, himself included. He continued to photograph in Japan with a similar "film noir" undertone. These New York and Japan photos were published by Nazraeli Press in a 2005 monograph titled "Imprint."

In 2008, Nazraeli Press published another monograph by Yuichi Hibi, titled "Neco." Over many years, Hibi photographed cats at rest, play, and on the hunt. Not simply documenting the cats, Hibi captures the essence of being a feline.

Hibi's photographic work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Meanwhile, Hibi continues to seek roles in film making. In 2001, he directed a documentary on photographer Robert Frank, "A Weekend with Mr. Frank". A companion book to A Weekend with Mr. Frank was released by Nazraeli Press in fall 2006 as part of their One Picture Book series.

A documentary directed by Hibi based on the life of Ken Takakura entitled Ken San premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and was released in Japanese theaters on August 20, 2016. It featured interviews with filmmakers and actors such as Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Michael Douglas, John Woo, and Yoji Yamada.