Photographs capture the moment -- a second in time frozen on film. And yet, unless you're a Magnum hotshot, this most "real" of media can produce images that seem lifeless, flat and unmoving. As all visual artists know, portraying three-dimensional figures in a two-dimensional medium is extremely difficult.
All the more extraordinary, then, are the creations of Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795).
As the pioneer of shasei-ga (sketching), Maruyama was perhaps the first Japanese artist to depict the realistic movement of birds and animals. Proof of his achievement is now on show at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Sumida Ward, where "Maruyama Okyo: Shasei-ga -- Challenging a New Frontier" gathers 120 of his masterpieces