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One (#20)

Artist Ken Ohara (Japanese, born 1942)
Date1970
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 8 5/8 × 7 1/4 inches (21.91 × 18.42 cm)
Sheet: 10 × 8 inches (25.4 × 20.32 cm)
Framed: 10 7/8 × 8 7/8 inches (27.62 × 22.54 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.4340
SignedSigned on sheet recto, lower right, in pencil; Signed on sheet verso, center, in pencil.
InscribedOn sheet verso, top, in pencil:" "One" - 1970 / #20"; On sheet verso, lower left corner, in pencil: "20".
Markingsnone
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionDetail image a child's face with eyes wide.Gallery Label

Ken Ohara’s series One includes over five hundred black and white portraits. In every photograph, Ohara closely cropped his subjects’ faces and aligned their eyes at a fixed, constant position. His system suggests both meaningful physical similarities and individual variety among his subjects. The approach evokes that of an archive that divides and classifies. Ultimately, however, Ohara’s visual "evidence" points to the messiness and ambiguity of categories like race, ethnicity, social status, or gender.

Copyright© Ken Ohara
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One (#200)
Ken Ohara
1970
2005.27.4342
One (#24)
Ken Ohara
1970
2005.27.4341
One (#294)
Ken Ohara
1970
2005.27.4343
One (#383)
Ken Ohara
1970
2005.27.4344
One (#8)
Ken Ohara
1970
2005.27.4339
recto overall
Ken Brown
1976
2016.75.1.4
Double exposure of child
Unknown
ca. 1850
2016.75.334
Untitled
Ken Heyman
ca. 1960-1970
2005.27.5491
Cracker Series, #2
Jack O'Hara
1979
2004.46
Maternity figure
20th century
2025.33.6