Bio
Arthur Nishimura is a photographer. He was born in the small, rural town of Raymond in Southern Alberta. His parents were immigrants to the area in the late 1910s. Photography was adopted by his father in the 1920s as a means to communicate his life in Canada to friends and family in Japan. This practice of photography was handed down from father to sons, and Arthur, as the youngest son, experienced photography at first hand, at a very early age.
After more than 50 years of working in photography as a student, as a commercial photographer, an editorial photographer, as an artist, and as a professor of photography in the Art Department at the University of Calgary, Nishimura continues to explore his reality in his favourite medium, black and white, wet process photography.
His artistic photography is informed by his love of the prairie landscape, an aesthetic derived from his Japanese heritage, and the unique visual education acquired through many years of composing through the lens of a camera. His notable influences are the photographs of Walker Evans, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange, as well as the works of American painter, Edward Hopper.
Arthur Nishimura’s photographs have been exhibited in local, national and international venues during the course of his career. His work is represented in private and public collections in the United States and in Canada.
In 2010 he retired from the Department of Art, Faculty of Fine Arts, at the University of Calgary where he had taught since 1971. He continues living, in retirement, in Calgary, Alberta.
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