Takuma Nakahira - Why a Plant Guide? - 1973

Why a Plant Guide?

Takuma Nakahira
Shobunsha/1973/Japanese/193*138*20

“Why a Plant Guide?—Essays on Film by Takuma Nakahira,” a collection of works by Japanese photographer Takuma Nakahira. This book compiles critiques on photography and film written by Nakahira from the late 1960s to the early 1970s; in Nakahira’s own words, “In short, it was a series of questions and answers I asked myself regarding the method by which I take photographs.” In terms of content, Chapter One, “The Ceaseless Expropriation of Vision,” primarily discusses Nakahira’s photographic methodology and the social conditions under which his photography was produced. Chapter Two, “Date, Place, Action,” is, as the title suggests, a collection of articles he wrote for various newspapers and magazines—complete with dates—on photography, film, television, and related topics. Incidentally, he exhibited under the same title at the Paris Youth Biennale, experimentally embodying his photographic theories of the time, and a collection of works under the same name has also been published in recent years. Finally, Chapter 3, “What Does It Mean to See Today?”, contains writings not directly related to photography itself, but rather about other worlds observed by Nakahira as a photographer. A historic masterpiece. Book design by Koga Hirano. First edition, 1973.