Hiro (photographer)

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Hiro, born Yasuhiro Wakabayashi on November 3, 1930, in Shanghai, China, was a Japanese-American photographer famous for fashion and still-life images from the mid-1960s onward. His family returned to Japan after World War II. He moved to the United States in 1954, studied briefly in New York, then apprenticed with photographers Lester Bookbinder and Reuben Samberg, and later at Richard Avedon’s fashion studio. In 1957 Avedon recommended him to Alexey Brodovitch at Harper’s Bazaar, where Hiro worked as an assistant during Brodovitch’s Design Laboratory at The New School. By the end of 1957 he began his own photography career. He worked as a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar from 1956 to 1975, then freelanced for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and other magazines. One early notable image is a 1963 photo of a Harry Winston diamond necklace placed on a cow hoof. Hiro’s photos are known for their elegance, clean look, unusual lighting, and bold color. He was named Photographer of the Year by the American Society of Media Photographers in 1969 and 1982. In 1982, American Photographer magazine devoted an issue to him. In 2020 he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. He died on August 15, 2021, at his home in Erwinna, Pennsylvania, at age 90. He married set designer Elizabeth Clark in 1959, and they had two sons. He lived mainly in Manhattan, with a country home in Erwinna.