I believe that my father experimented with various possibilities in photography. He has been noted to have said that photography “should not keep going down the same path as painting.”
― Tamotsu Shiihara

Born in Osaka City in 1905. In 1928 Shiihara Osamu entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts（now Tokyo National University Of Fine Arts and Music）where he studied with the painter Fujishima Takeji in the Western painting department.
After graduating in 1932，he returned to Kansai（western Japan） and set up a painting studio in Hyogo Prefecture.
He began photography around this time and became a member of the Tampei Photography Club. As a main member of the Tampei Photography Club he produced a large number of experimental photographs，employing such special techniques as photogram, solarization and a combination of drawing and photography that he dubbed Photo peinture（photo painting）.
After the war Shiihara moved to Osaka, where he worked for dyeing studio and continued his photography, and in 1953 he joined Tanahashi Shisui and others in forming the Spiegel Photographers Association.
His works are in permanent collections of national and international institutions and museums including The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Nagoya City Art Museum, The Museumn of Fine Arts, Houston and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
This publication features 84 works by Osamu Shiihara who lived through the 1900’s, a time of exploring the possibilities of photography. Including an afterword by Tamotsu Shiihara. Text is available in both Japanese and English.