examples, for the rest of his career, Ōtsuji's individual work continued to explore the presence of objects (もの, mono) – ready-made or found objects – and to capture their ephemerality with his camera. Additionally, Ōtsuji continued to take on contract jobs, including photographing the pianist Alfred Cortot during his visit to Japan. Work with avant-garde groups: 1953–1959 In 1953, Ōtsuji collaborated with the avant-garde art collective Jikken Kōbō on a project for the weekly graphic magazine Asahi Picture News, a serialized section of Asahi Graph. Each artist constructed a three-dimensional assemblage containing the letters "A," "P," and "N" and Ōtsuji photographed the object. Each photograph was printed as a small header in the top corner of the Asahi Picture News double-page spread. After this project, Ōtsuji joined the group as an official member. He contributed photographs made into autoslide projections for the 5th Experimental Workshop Presentation in 1953, and continued to photograph the group's events and rehearsals until they split up in 1957. In 1953, Ōtsuji also joined Gurafikku Shudan ("Graphic Group"), a group of photographers and designers, with whom he exhibited photography and collaborated on publications and other projects. In 1955, Ōtsuji screened the experimental film Kine Calligraph at the 2nd Graphic Group Presentation. The film, produced with Yasuhiro Ishimoto and Saiko Tsuji, with a score by Tōru Takemitsu, involved painting directly onto film to create purely abstract effects. It was an early example of abstract film in Japan. From 1956 to 1959, Ōtsuji worked as a part-time photographer for the art magazine Geijutsu Shinchō, contributing photographs for articles covering art, design, architecture, music, theater, dance and film. His photographs ranged from portraits of artists to documentation of performances, putting him in contact with some of the most prominent figures in the Japanese art world. He notably photographed works by Gutai members at the 2nd Gutai Art Exhibition in 1956, as well as Tatsumi Hijikata’s performances of Butoh, among other major events. Throughout the 1950s, Ōtsuji continued to experiment both with photographic expression and with the photographic apparatus. In 1956, he took a series of close-up photographs of Lake Ōnuma, focusing on such images as slanted lines left behind on its frozen surface by ice skates. With none of the surrounding landscape depicted, the icy surface resembled gestural abstraction. He built his own camera and even devised a cinematic device called an "autoscope" that was used to project images