Hiro

Hiro (Yasuhiro Wakabayashi) (1930–2021) was a Japanese‑American photographer whose revolutionary fashion imagery reshaped the visual language of magazines in the 1960s and ’70s. Born in Tianjin, China, and raised in Japan, he emigrated to the United States in 1954 to study photography. Two years later Richard Avedon hired him as an assistant, soon introducing him to Harper’s Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch. By 1958 Brodovitch brought Hiro onto the magazine’s staff, and in 1963 he became the sole contracted photographer—a position he held for more than a decade.

Hiro’s photographs are noted for their blend of technical precision and poetic invention. He often staged surreal juxtapositions—mixing unexpected props or backdrops with high‑fashion models—and used dramatic lighting and bold color to heighten each composition. His work moved beyond conventional elegance to explore form, movement, and visual metaphor, influencing a generation of photographers who followed.

Throughout his career Hiro contributed to Vogue, Elle, and Glamour, and his images have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography and in retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art. Avedon declared in 1965 that Hiro was “one of the few artists in the history of photography,” a testament to his enduring impact on fashion and editorial imagery.