Eikoh Hosoe studied at the Tokyo College of Photography. He made his first solo exhibition "American Girl in Tokyo" in 1956 at Konishiroku Photo Gallery. Between 1957 and 1959 he participated in the protest-exhibition of the new photographic movement "Juninno-Me" (The Eyes of the Ten) with photographers I. Narahara, S. Tomatsy, Y. Ishimito and the critic Tatsuo Fukushima. In 1959, six members of this group including Hosoe, Tomatsu and Narahara founded the Vivo Agency which is very important in the history of Japanese photography. He gained recognition with his work " Man and Woman" that was showed at the Konishiroku Photo Gallery in 1960 and published in 1961 by Camera Art, Tokyo. In 1962 Ordeal by Roses with the writter Yukio Mishima gained him international recognition as well as did Kamaitachi in 1969 featuring Tatsumi Hijikata (fonder of the Japanese contemporary dance called Buto). Hosoe has now published more than fifty books including monographs and essays. Hosoe is also a filmmaker.
Eikoh Hosoe (b. 1933, Yamagata) is one of the most influential Japanese photographers in the history of the medium. This comprehensive volume will be the primary resource on Hosoe’s oeuvre, edited, designed, and produced under the artist’s direction and with the collaboration of internationally renowned curator and scholar Yasufumi Nakamori.
Since the mid-1950s, Eikoh Hosoe has been at the forefront of photographic practice in Japan: as an image-maker encompassing a broad range of subjects; a curator introducing works of master European and American photographers to Japan in 1968; a teacher informing the careers of numerous distinguished photographers, such as Daido Moriyama. He co-established an influential lens-based art journal, co-founded the photographic cooperative Vivo and later the progressive Photography Workshop, created a university education curriculum and photography collection, and exhibited and published numerous books and catalogs of his own photographs in Japan. In the process, he pioneered the establishment of postwar Japanese photography, rescuing the medium from the pre-existing modes of documentary and realism and positioning it at a new nexus of art, literature, performance, and film.
This career-defining publication not only features Hosoe’s major photographic series but also reveals his lesser-known collaborative works with writers, critics, dancers, and artists, including Yayoi Kusama, in portraiture and beyond. Additionally, the volume includes two newly-commissioned essays offering new perspectives on Hosoe’s oeuvre, alongside reprints of a selection of previously-published seminal essays on Hosoe by a range of Japanese writers, including the novelist Yukio Mishima and the art critic Shuzo Takiguchi. As well as serving as a survey of Hosoe’s work, this book uncovers the essential protagonists of Japanese art, photography, dance, and literature across the post-1945 era.
An undisputed masterwork among Japanese photobooks, Eikoh Hosoe and Tatsumi Hijikata's "Kamaitachi" was originally released in 1969 as a limited edition of 1,000 copies.
Hosoe, the renowned photographer, and Hijikata, the founder of ankoku butoh dance, had visited a farming village in northern Japan, where Hijikata improvised a performance inspired by the legend of a weasel-like demon named Kamaitachi. As Hosoe photographed Hijikata's spontaneous interactions with the landscape and with the people they encountered, the two artists together enacted an intense investigation of tradition and an exploration, both personal and symbolic, of contemporary convulsions in Japanese society.
In 2005, Aperture published a limited-edition facsimile in homage to the original, in close consultation with the artist; now, they have made this enchanting body of work available in its first ever affordable trade edition, which was painstakingly reworked by renowned graphic artist Ikko Tanaka--the designer of the original volume--shortly before his death. His reinterpretation of this classic book object, which is truly a paragon of Japanese bookmaking, includes as a special bonus four never-before-published images from the classic Kamaitachi series.
Eikoh Hosoe was born in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, in 1933. He is an integral part of the history of modern Japanese photography, and remains a driving force not only for his own work, but also for his efforts as a teacher and ambassador, fostering artistic exchange between Japan and the outside world. Hosoe lives in Tokyo and is represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.
Overview of Hosoe's career to date which includes images from many of his books including "Barakei," "Man and Woman," and "Embrace," plus portraits, nudes and architectural studies. This is the first monograph on Hosoe published in the United States.
Nanda Hagenaars approaches photography with a poetic and emotionally rich sensibility, creating images that reflect her intuitive connection to the world. Fascinated by the relationship between time and timelessness, she often works in black and white, a medium that aligns with her creative vision. We discovered her beautiful work through her submission to AAP Magazine Portrait, and we were captivated by her series Perspective. We asked her a few questions about her life and work.
Lisa McCord is a fine art and documentary photographer whose work deeply reflects her roots in the Arkansas Delta. Known for her evocative explorations of storytelling, memory, and time, McCord draws inspiration from her family’s cotton farm in her series Rotan Switch, which won a solo exhibition and has now been published as a book by Kehrer Verlag. We asked her a few questions about her life and wor
French photographer Laurent Baheux, follows the tradition of humanist photographers by capturing black-and-white images of nature and wildlife. His subjects are not confined to cages or enclosures; they are free individuals, captured in the moment, displaying the full strength of their freedom, the beauty of their personalities, and the tenderness of their communal lives. Celebrated for their aesthetic power and authenticity, Laurent's black-and-white photographs have been featured in books, publications, exhibitions, and conferences, and are displayed in galleries both in France and internationally.
Jon Enoch is a London-based freelance photographer, who works with celebrities, sports people, CEOs, as well as advertising agencies and brands. Jon regularly creates his own personal work, which have won numerous awards over the years. Jon’s recent project ‘The Candymen of Mumbai’ has won a Portrait of Humanity award and was the overall winner of the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the year 2023. His previous 2019 project called ‘Bikes of Hanoi’ also picked up multiple awards including the Paris Photo Prize - Gold in 2019, Portrait of Humanity Award 2020 and was the Smithsonian Grand Prize Winner in 2020. He was also shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in 2020 and nominated for the Lens Culture Portrait Prize 2020. We asked him a few questions about his project 'Reflections'
George Byrne is an acclaimed Australian photographer known for his striking use of color and composition. Byrne's work often captures urban landscapes with a minimalist and abstract aesthetic, transforming ordinary cityscapes into vivid, painterly images. His distinctive style highlights the beauty in everyday scenes, emphasizing geometry, light, and shadow to create visually captivating pieces. Byrne has gained international recognition for his unique approach to photography, blending elements of fine art and documentary to offer a fresh perspective on the urban environment.
Cole is best known for her underwater photography, but her other studio practice during the cold months in Toronto is an ongoing series of wet collodion photographs. This heavily analog process from the 19th Century is a years-long endeavor of revitalization and experimentation, offering modern day viewers an understanding of what it took to develop photographs in the early days of its invention.
Cole has added her own unique take on the process by adding a layer of color in contrast to the usual sepia tones associated with the genre. The resulting wet plate photographs are tactile and dimensional dances between light and shadow, past and present, depicting women in timeless dreamscapes. We asked her a few questions about this specific project
I discovered Michael Joseph's work in 2016, thanks to Ann Jastrab. I was immediately captivated by the power of his beautiful black and white photographs from his series 'Lost and Found.' His haunting portraits of young Travelers have stayed with me ever since.
Debe Arlook is an award-winning American artist working in photography. Through color and diverse photographic processes, Arlook’s conceptual work is a response to her surroundings and the larger environment, as she attempts to understand the inner and outer worlds of human relationships. Degrees in filmmaking and psychology inform these views.
Seth Dickerman is a master manipulator of the wide spectrum of light densities that reflect off the surface of a photographic print and enter into our field of vision. His singular intent in making prints is to bring out the best an image has to offer, which means giving an image the ability to hold our attention, to engage us, and to allow us to discover something about an image that is meaningful and significant.
