The public profile of the Japanese photography book has recently boomed, from near-complete obscurity to great desirability. And not only for the aficionados. Photobooks that once were entirely unknown outside Japan (except to a few well-informed scholars and collectors) now sell at astronomical prices at auctions and online. And yet the photobook has been central to the development of Japanese photography, particularly in its postwar phase. To sketch the stages of this boom: 1999's Fotografia Publica included just one Japanese photobook, Kiyoishi Koishi's Early Summer Nerves of 1937, plus two photo magazines from the 1930s, Nippon and Koga; Andrew Roth's The Book of 101 Books (2001) listed four seminal titles by Hosoe, Kawada, Araki and Moriyama; but it was not until 2004, with the first volume of Martin Parr and Gerry Badger's indispensable The Photobook: A History, that it began to be clear what a rich body of work awaited excavation. Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s may be seen as a culmination of this trajectory and, as such, marks a very exciting moment in photo publishing and in the history of photography. It presents 40 definitive publications from the era, piecing together a previously invisible history from some of the most influential works, as well as from forgotten gems, and situating them against the broader historical and sociological backdrop. Each book, beautifully reproduced through numerous spreads, is accompanied by an in-depth explanatory text, and sidebars highlight important editors, designers, themes and periodicals. A superb production, Japanese Photobooks is a landmark celebration of the distinct character and influence of the Japanese photobook.
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"A wide range of subject matter and execution is on display, the only connecting thread being the skill of sequence and juxtaposition, and first-rate graphic and typographic design." --Ag: The International Journal of Photographic Art & Practice
"With each book described and displayed over several pages, the care given to format, design, printing, and sequencing is especially evident; with few exceptions, these are artists' books--brilliant, compact realizations of idiosyncratic visions... Although Japanese Photobooks omits several notable titles covered extensively elsewhere, it introduces many more that will be news to all but the most dedicated collectors, making this an invaluable addition to the ever-expanding shelf of photographic books on books." -- Vince Aletti --Photograph Magazine
"With each book described and displayed over several pages, the care given to format, design, printing, and sequencing is especially evident; with few exceptions, these are artists' books--brilliant, compact realizations of idiosyncratic visions... Although Japanese Photobooks omits several notable titles covered extensively elsewhere, it introduces many more that will be news to all but the most dedicated collectors, making this an invaluable addition to the ever-expanding shelf of photographic books on books." -- Vince Aletti --Photograph Magazine
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Agree With Other Reviews of the Book - It's Full of Information and Enjoyment,
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This review is from: Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s (Hardcover)
I really can't add much to the glowing reviews of this book you can find on the eyecurious, nyartbeat, 5B4, Conscientious, freelibrary (from Afterimage), and newyorker Internet sites. Suffice it to say that if you like photography, especially artistic photography, especially artistic photography books, this is something you'll want on your shelf.
It's 9x12 inches and 240 pages of information and enjoyment. Ryuichi Kaneko in the "Introduction" reflects on the personal impact of Japanese photobooks. Ivan Vartanian's essay "The Japanese Photobook: Toward an Immediate Media" gives a great scholarly overview of the book's topic. An interview with famed photographer and photobook maker Daido Moriyama provides an interesting artist's perspective. The body of the book describes 43 (by my count) Japanese photobooks. Space does not allow a complete listing here (for that, check out the ajapanesebook site), but among the books are Nobuyoshi Araki's "Sentimental Journey," "Okinawa: Araki Nobuyoshi Photobook 2," and "Tokyo: Araki Nobuyoshi Photobook 3"; Ken Domon's "The Children Of Chikuho"; Masahisa Fukase's "Ravens"; Eikoh Hosoe's "Man And Woman"; Yasuhiro Ishimoto's "Someday, Somewhere"; Kawada Kikuji's "The Map"; Daido Moriyama's "Japanese Theater"; Takuma Nakahira's "For A Language To Come"; and Yutaka Takanashi's "Towards The City." For each book, you get a photo of the slipcase (if available) and of the front cover; a description of the book's publisher, size, method of printing, etc; a 1-2 page essay about the book; and photos of several page spreads. The page spread photos are high-quality and can be up to half the size of the book's pages, so they allow the reader to appreciate nuances of the photobooks. Buy this from Amazon.com!
5.0 out of 5 stars
I definitely recommend it,
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This review is from: Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s (Hardcover)
I bought this book about 2 months ago while I was in Europe. I hesitated a bit as I was already having too much weight to travel back home and more books meant more weight which meant $$ to pay at the airport (which I was obliged to do). But as I flipped through the book a couple of times trying to decide on whether to buy it or not, I just made up my mind, based on the beautiful images of beautiful books, the amount of text there and beautiful layout. This is not just a book filled with some nice reproductions of strong work, it's also informative and if this is something you feel interested about (Japanese photographers/photobooks) then this will be an enjoyable read. I knew of a few Japanese photographers before, but after buying this book (and I have only read parts of it so far) I know a lot more about photography in Japan in 1960s and 70s, and some of the amazing photographers still working today.
Of course a book about such subjects has to be beautifully laid-out. so as I said, it's both informative and eye-pleasing.
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