About

Yoichi R. Okamoto (1915 – 1985)

Yoichi Robert Okamoto was born on 5 July 1915 in Yonkers, New York, the son of Japanese immigrants. He studied political science and economics at Colgate University and, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in January 1942, became the first Japanese- American from the New York area to enlist in the U.S. Army.

Okamoto arrived in Europe as a military photographer in the spring of 1945 and in Austria in the summer of that year. He was the personal photographer of the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces in Austria, General Mark W. Clark, until 1947.

From 1948 to 1954, he headed the photo department of the United States Information Service in Austria (USIS).

Okamoto, who was himself an outstanding art photographer, encouraged and influenced a whole generation of young Austrian photographers, including Ernst Haas, Barbara Pflaum, and Jeff Rainer.

In 1954, Okamoto returned to the USA with his Viennese wife Paula. As a farewell gift, the Würthle Gallery in Vienna held a large exhibition in honor of his artistic work.

In 1963, Yoichi Okamoto was appointed official White House photographer by the President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson. From 1963 to 1969, he made some 370,000 photographs in the White House and revolutionized American presidential photography forever.

This project, through its partners, aims to make Okamoto’s work and life story available to a wider audience through exhibitions, publications, and symposia.

We are grateful for the support and cooperation by the following institutions who have been enabling this over time:

• Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation

• Austrian Marshall Plan Center for European Studies, The University of New Orleans

• Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies

• Central Current, Inc.

• CNY ARTS, Inc.

• Diplomatic Academy Vienna

• Embassy of Austria in the United States

• Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library

• Okamoto Family

• Onondaga Historical Association