Signed; Atsushi Tani - Ambivalence [First Edition] - 2013

Signed first edition of Ambivalence, the first photobook by Japanese photographer Atsushi Tani, published in 2013.

Tani is known for a distinctive photographic world combining dark eroticism, fetish imagery, avant-garde aesthetics and highly stylised visual compositions.

His work emerged from Japanese underground culture, and his photography has also drawn inspiration from literature, including the writings of Georges Bataille, Edogawa Ranpo and the Brothers Grimm.

Ambivalence brings together 64 pages of colour photography exploring the human body through dark, theatrical and often surreal imagery. Bodies, costumes, masks, objects and carefully constructed environments are combined to create images that move between beauty and unease, sensuality and the grotesque.

The publication is particularly interesting within the context of Japanese underground and fetish visual culture of the period.

The book also includes texts by several important figures in Japanese art and photography culture: photography critic Kotaro Iizawa, religious anthropologist Keiji Ueshima, and renowned Japanese illustrator and graphic artist Aquirax Uno (Akira Uno), who contributed the afterword.

The publication of Ambivalence was accompanied by Tani's 2013 exhibition “Ambivalence Live!” at Poster Harris Gallery in Tokyo, where photographs from the book were exhibited alongside other works.

This copy is signed and dated “2013” by Atsushi Tani.

An unusual Japanese photobook for collectors interested in Japanese underground photography, fetish art, erotic photography, avant-garde visual culture and contemporary Japanese photography.