The Historical Book Award and The Contemporary Book Awards
The Historical Book Award goes to the best thematic book or monograph published between 1 June 2009 and 31 May 2010. The Contemporary Book Award goes to the best photography book published between 1 June 2009 and 31 May 2010. The Book Awards winners are chosen by the five Discovery Award nominators, Rencontres d’Arles president Jean-Noël Jeanneney, and LUMA Foundation founder Maja Hoffmann.

Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965 – 74
Editors: Roland Angst, Ferdinand Brueggemann, Priska Pasquer
Essays by Ferdinand Brueggmann and Hitoshi Suzuki
Published by Only Photography, Berlin
116 pages, 41 images, Triplex, hardcover, ed. 500
Text: German, English, Japanese
ISBN 978-3-9812537-2-6

As a member of the small Provoke collective, Takanashi was able to find a new theoretical approach and its visual language. The influence of this group and of the magazine on the photographic scene in Japan was immense. In the following years the Provoke photographers produced major works in terms of photographic history, whereby Yutaka Takanashi defined the high point as well as the end of this era with the publication of his first book, Toshi-e (Towards the City), in 1974.

This two-part book set new standards in terms of design, materials and craftsmanship. In a compartment behind the larger volume, Toshi-e, one finds an earlier series in the smaller format volume, Tôkyô-jin; it seems to have provided the basis for the larger book.

Our book, Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965–74, presents a representative cross-section of these two pioneering photographic series in 35 full-page illustrations and 6 large format plates. An extensive biography, list of exhibitions and a bibliography round off our newest publication.

The book is available at Only Photography and at Schaden.com. It was published on occasion of the Yutaka Takanashi exhibition at Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne.
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The Historical Book Award went to a book on Japanese photography as well:
“Japanese photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s” by Ryuichi Kaneko and Ivan Vartanian, Aperture 2009.

And a third  book on Japanese photography was honorably mentioned at the prize giving ceremony in Arles:
“Yutaka Takanashi: Toshi-e (Towards the City)“. Books on Books #6, published by Jeffrey Ladd, Errata Editions 2010.

The young women photographer  (born 1985) was awarded the Kimura Ihei Commemorative Photography Award for her two photo books “MID” and “GROUND” and a solo exhibition at TARO NASU gallery.

This award is given to new photographers who achieve outstanding results in creating photos and presentation activities. Because it is the most prestigious award of its kind, it is also referred to as the Akutagawa Award of the photography world. Previous recipients include Mika Ninagawa, Rinko Kawauchi, Taiji Matsue, Masafumi Sanai, Tomoko Sawada, Ryûdai Takano and Lieko Shiga.

Kotaro Iizawa writes about Cozue Takagi’s series “MID”:

The “MID” series is in front of us now. At one time it was called “Mother”. So this group of images which at the first glance seems multifarious, randomly picked and scattered out may, for Cozue, be the “mother”. (…) We should be able to put the complex structure of Cozue´s photographic work into focus.
But this effort quickly gets caught in a labyrinth and arrives at a dead end. The information we’re given is too fragmented. (…)
What is “MID”? It means the midway of something. The midway of what? Cozue immediately replies: “The midway between life and death.”
[Quote: Kotaro Iizawa, in "MID"]

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While “MID” consists of straight photography “GROUND” contains digitally created photo collages (some of them measuring around 3m).

The collages were created by layering images using a computer for to make visible the intricate illusion that weaves reality and fiction together.
[Quote: Tokyo Art Beat]

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Both books “GROUND” and “MID” were published 2009 by Akaaka Art Publishing.

Photographed 1964-65 “Tokyo-jin” concentrates on the inhabitants of the mega city Tokyo. At that time Tokyo had overcome the severe destructions of World War II and new centers for consumption, mass- and avant-garde culture had emerged, now mainly concentrated in Shinjuku and Shibuya.(2) Takanashi’s series shows people in public spaces, in the streets, at department stores, commuting to work – like the fantastic image of an overcrowded subway train -, or spending leisure time together.

Frequently the images contain more or less subtle hints on the radical changes the Japanese economy, society and culture underwent since the end of WWII. Takanashi depicts the Salarymen in their business suits and female shop clerks in company uniforms, who were dominating the center of Tokyo. These Tokyoites were part of the middle class whose expanding income set the base of the expanding consumer culture. And Takanashi show its most visible sign: young middle class families in their first cars.

But Takanashi’s outlook at the Tokyoties isn’t just a simple appreciation of contemporary life in a megacity. Often people seem to be isolated, standing alone in the street or among the masses. And quite often Takanashi shows remnants of the traditional culture which became more and more invisible while the symbols of the American way of life and its leading brands became an essential part of the visual culture in Japan: A child with a Ray Ban sun glasses in front of a temple and or the coca cola logo on the back of the shirt of a baseball player.

All together the flow of the images constructs a multi-layered, complex narration of a city on the move, oscillating between progress and tradition, between local habits and an increasingly internationalized consumer culture.

The “Tokyo-jin” series was very well received in the Japanese photography scene, albeit the presentation in Camera Mainichi magazine must have been looked upon as unsatisfactory: even though the magazine wasn’t of large size, 3-4 images were put on a double page. The consequence of the cramped layout was, that for the reader of the magazine the real quality of the images was only vaguely perceptible.

The hope that this series would later receive an adequate publication was disappointed when Takanashi published it eight years later as part of his two-volume book “Toshi-e” (Towards the City). In “Toshi-e” the “Tokyo-jin” series was again printed in a small size publication, this time roughly printed on cheapish, yellow tinted paper – but it became part of one the most impressive photobooks of the 20th century.

“(Tokyo-jin) was considered Takanashi’s representative work and an important contribution to contemporary Japanese photography. Its publication in book form had been hotly anticipated since the work first appeared in the January 1966 issue of Camera Mainichi. (…) When “Towards the City” was eventually published in 1974, buyers were befuddled and disappointed to find “People of Tokyo” treated like a mere supplement.
[Quote: Rûyichi Kaneko(3)]

I guess that one reason for Takanashi’s decision not to present the series in a more appropriate way was, that in the second half of the 1960s Takanashi became discontent with this kind of subjective documentary photography.

Around 1967/68 Takanashi and other photographers and critics were in search for a new approach on describing reality, they were in search for a new visual “language to come”. Therefore is wasn’t a surprise that in 1968 Yutaka Takanashi became a founding member of the ‘Provoke’ collective, a collective which during its short span of life should change the Japanese photography forever and whose impact can still be traced in Japanese photography today (and in the West as well).

More on Takanashi, Provoke and his book “Toshi-e” (Towards the City) soon in part II

The blog DLK COLLECTION just posted an overview of the results of the ‘Photobook’ auction at Christie’s, South Kensington, May 21:

The results of the recent Photobooks sale at Christie’s in London were considerably stronger than the other photography-related book sales this season. While I don’t have access to historical photobook auction records, according to Christie’s, the inscribed Frank [The Americans] likely set a record for a regularly-published (not special or limited edition) postwar book, fetching a hefty £43250 ($62,194). Photobooks by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Prince also soared to big prices. Overall, the buy-in rate was solid (just under 28%) and the total sale proceeds covered the total High estimate.
[Quote: DLK COLLECTION]

This prompted me to have a closer look at the results of the Japanese photobooks included in the auction. Kikuji Kawada’s “The Map” became the 5th most expensive book and Araki’s extremely rare edition of  “ABCD” (20 copies) made the 9th place on the list, closely followed by the two ‘Workshop’ portfolios (place 11 and 12) and Yutaka Takanashi’s “Toshi-e” (no. 14).

Here are the results for Japanese photobooks:

KIKUJI KAWADA
Chizu — The Map. Designed by Kohei Sugiura. Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 1965.
$17,975
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NOBUYOSHI ARAKI
ABCD. New York: PPP Editions, 2003.
$11,684
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WORKSHOP
Portfolio One. Tokyo: Eikoh Hosoe Portfolio, 1975.
$10,785
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WORKSHOP
Shashinshu Dai 1 [2] go — Photo-album Volume 1 [and 2]. Tokyo: Workshop, July and October 1974. [With:] Moriyama Daido to 16 Nin no Otokotachi — Daido Moriyama and 16 Men. Workshop, 1976.
$9,886
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YUTAKA TAKANASHI
Toshi-e — Towards the City. Tokyo: for the author, 1974.
$7,550
(More on Yutaka Takanashi in my next blog post.)
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SHOMEI TOMATSU
11:02 Nagasaki. Tokyo: Shashindojinsha, 1966.
$7,190
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MASAHISA FUKASE
Karasu — Ravens. Tokyo: Sokyusha, 1986.
$5,393
(Fukase’s book “Ravens” was recently selected as the best photobook of the last 25 years. See my previous blog post.)
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SHIGENE KANAMARU (ed.)
Shinko shashin no tsukurikata — The Making of Modern Photography. Tokyo: Genkosha, 1932.
$5,393

The translation of the book title is wrong. The correct translation is
“How to make New Photography“.

Shinkô Shashin is a central term of the Modern photography in Japan. The term Shinkô Shashin (= New Photography) was used the first time in Japan in 1926 for the newly founded photography club “New Photography Society” (Shinkô Shashinkai), but at that time it did not have clear definition. 

Shinkô Shashin got its real meaning in 1930 when Sen’ichi Kimura - publisher of the “Phototimes”, one of the leading photography magazines at that time – founded the photography club “New Photography Research Society” (Shinkô Shashin Kenkyukai). Kimura and his colleagues used the term Shinkô Shashin as a direct translation of the German term New Photography (Neue Fotografie). Since then the term has been associated with the Japanese Avant-garde photography which was highly influenced by photography from Germany, especially by Laszlo Moholy Nagy and Albert Renger-Patzsch.
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DAIDO MORIYAMA
Shashin yo Sayonara — Bye Bye Photography. Tokyo: Shashin Hyoron-sha, 1972.
$4,314
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KENJI KANESAKA (editor)
Underground Generation. Tokyo: Novel Shobo, 1968.
$3,595
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SHOMEI TOMATSU
OO! Shinjuku. Tokyo: Shaken, 1969.
$2,876
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KISHIN SHINOYAMA
Hareta Hi — A Fine Day. Tokyo: Heibon-sha, 1975.
$1,798
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SHOMEI TOMATSU
Nihon — Japan. Tokyo: Shaken, 1967.
$1,618
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SHOMEI TOMATSU
Sengoha — Après Guerre. Tokyo: Chuo koronsha, 1971.
$1,168
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HIROSHI HAMAYA
Yukiguni — Snow Land. Tokyo: Mainichi Newspapers, 1956.
$899
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FUMIAKI FUKUDA
Where is ’69 Shinjuku Kaminori Zoku. Tokyo: Daikan Shokan, 1980.
$809
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SHIGEO GOCHO
Hibi — Day to Day. With Masao Sekiguchi. Tokyo: for the authors, 1971.
$719

The critics chose Masahisa Fukase’s book “Ravens” as the best book.

The best photobooks in 25 years
An obscure masterpiece is chosen in our critic’s poll of the best photobooks of the past 25 years.

Few readers will have heard of – let along seen – Masahisha Fukase’s 1986 book, Karasu (Ravens), first printed by Sokyu-sha, a Japanese publisher based in Tokyo. The original, and two further editions, are out of print, yet many regard it a modern masterpiece, and copies of the first edition change hands for more than £2000.

And now it has been named the best photobook of the past quarter century in BJP’s critic’s poll, run in conjunction with the And/Or Book Awards, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Photographed 10 years before it was published on a trip to his birthplace in northern Japan following a recent divorce, the book is a mournful reflection on Fukase’s past relationship, but has also been interpreted as a allegorical critique of modern industrialised society.

Largely shot through the windows of a train, focusing obsessively on the flocks of ravens he observed along the way, the images are described as “an aesthetic tour-de-force” in The Photobook: A History, Volume 1, edited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger. “Even though Fukase made his pictures in bad light and bad weather, never bothering with technical niceties, the results are both luminous and beautiful,” say the authors. “He enlarges tiny portions of his negatives, pushing for the limits of legibility. One climatic image of silhouetted birds in formation, wings outstretched against a grainy sky, metamorphoses into a wire news service image of overheard warplanes, a significant, and traumatic image for postwar Japan.”

Adding to its cult status is the tragic fate of the photographer, who fell down a flight of stairs five years after the book was published and has remained in a coma ever since.

Karasu was republished by Bedford Arts in the US the same year, 1991, under the title of Solitude of Ravens, and more recently in 2008 by Rat Hole Gallery in Tokyo. Mark Hayworth Booth showed images from the series in the 1989 show he curated for Victoria & Albert Museum, Photography Now.

It was one of four books that received two nominations in our critic’s poll, for which we asked Chris Killip, Ute Eskildsen, Gerry Badger, Jeffrey Ladd and Yoko Sawada to select their top five choices (presented below). Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency, also published in 1986, was a close runner and, as Killip points out, it was a remarkable year for photobooks, which included the publication of Martin Parr’s The Last Resort and Beyond Caring by Paul Graham.
(…)
British Journal of Photography

See also:
Masahisa Fukase’s Ravens: the best photobook of the past 25 years?
Guardian.co.uk