KEN OHARA – CONTACTS
2025-12-29In 1974, photographer Ken Ohara embarked on an experiment that transformed the act of image-making into a collective gesture of trust and chance. Living in New York City but born in Tokyo in 1942, Ohara began what he called a photographic chain letter—an invitation sent to strangers chosen randomly from the phone book. Each received a preloaded camera with simple instructions: take photographs of yourself, your family, and your surroundings, then return the camera along with the name of the next participant. Over two years, this modest device passed through a hundred hands across thirty-six states, traveling from Hawai’i to the Bronx, carrying with it fragments of countless unseen lives.
Exhibition runs through to February 8th, 2026
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street
New York
NY 10014