Shin-ichi Kumanomido
Shin-ichi Kumanomido was born in 1941 in Nobeoka, Japan. In 1961, he received a scholarship to attend Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This same year, he came to the United States with $100 and very little English. In 1970, he graduated from Miami University with a degree in Architecture and moved to St Louis to work as an architect. All the while, his true love was photography.In the summer of 1976, he left his career in architecture to pursue photography after attending a Fred Picker workshop in Vermont. Having previously earned a black belt in karate, he took a job as a bodyguard to two young college girls (sisters) who took a semester off to bike across the United States for three months. During this time, he documented the girls’ trip with 35mm color slide film and took black and white photos with larger format cameras - many of the images displayed on this website came from this trip. Those color slide images help illustrate a book of poetry written by one of the sisters, Let the Wind Push Us Across, by Ellen Shapiro. This trip changed Shin-ichi's career and his life.After this trip, he changed his profession from architecture to photography. To make a living, he specialized in architectural photography, crisscrossing the country for many clients. From 1978-80, he taught the Zone System and Fine Print courses at Webster University, Webster Groves, Missouri .His photographs have been shown at Martin Schweig Gallery, St Louis Missouri (1978); Studio 109 University of Missouri St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri; Columbia Photo Gallery, Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Ohio; and Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center, Portsmouth, Ohio.Shin-ichi’s photography is featured in Let the Wind Push Us Across, poetry by Jane Shapiro (2017), Italianate Architecture in Portsmouth, published by Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Portsmouth: Architecture in an Ohio River Town, published by Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, Ohio (1982).Shin-ichi also invented and patented the Mido Thin Film Holder, used by many large format fine art photographers.Shin-ichi’s passion for photography is unabated and he always has an eye for something intriguing, unique in shape, form and texture. He and his wife reside in University City, Missouri.
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