Ueda, Shoji (1913-2001), Japanese modernist photographer, noted for his sense of play and jousts with Surrealism. Ueda was born and lived most of his life far to the west of Tokyo in the seaside village of Yonago in Tottori prefecture. A member of the amateur club Yonago Shayu Kai from 1931, he opened a portrait studio in Tottori in 1932 and helped to establish several photography groups, including Ginreisha with Yoichi Midorikawa in 1947. A frequent winner of amateur magazine competitions with his modern and figurative images, Ueda mainly photographed around his home town, especially at the Tottori Dunes where he took his best-known series of playful and carefully arranged family portraits and humorous still lifes. Numerous volumes of his work have appeared in Japan. He received many Japanese and foreign awards, and the Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography, devoted to his work, opened in 1995.
— Madeleine Hill Vedel
