Prospective students to the photography school Resist need to be searching for a way to find themselves, says its founder, Masayuki Yoshinaga, agreeing with his friend and mentor Daido Moriyama, both established photographers.
Founded in 2006, Resist is a product of Yoshinaga's observations when teaching photography. He opened the school after returning to Japan from a position in the United States. As a professional commercial photographer, he had been given opportunities to teach as a guest lecturer at Yale University in Connecticut and at Shashin Shomen Daigaku (Shomen photography college) in Osaka — both of which he found particularly interesting.
"The students were beaming with lights of curiosity and enthusiasm," Yoshinaga says. "But in both Japanese and American cultures I found it very unfortunate that they did not have a real outlet to explore their curiosity and find a way for photography to express themselves beyond their school years."