Yoshihiro Tatsuki - Eves [Makoto Wada Design - First Printing] - 1970

Eves is an early photographic work by Yoshihiro Tatsuki, published in Japan in 1970.

The book brings together black-and-white portraits and nude studies of 22 women from Japanese popular culture of the period, including actresses, fashion models, singers and dancers.

Among the subjects are Emie Aoki, Mari Atsumi, Tamaki Sawa, Hoki Tokuda, Angela Asaoka and other figures associated with Japanese film, fashion and entertainment around the end of the 1960s.

Rather than functioning simply as a conventional nude photography book, Eves has a distinctly playful and experimental editorial character.

The photographs move between portraiture, performance, eroticism and visual games, including images using television monitors, mirrors and repeated frames that give the book a particularly strong late-1960s / early-1970s media aesthetic.

The overall composition and editorial design were created by Makoto Wada, whose graphic sensibility gives the publication a light, witty and highly distinctive rhythm.

The final section also includes handwritten-style questionnaires relating to the models, adding another unusually personal and humorous layer to the book.

Published while Tatsuki was establishing himself as one of the important photographers of postwar Japan, Eves remains an attractive document of Japanese photography, fashion, celebrity culture and editorial design at the beginning of the 1970s.

This copy is the first printing, issued on March 10, 1970.

A distinctive publication for collectors of Yoshihiro Tatsuki, Japanese photography, Makoto Wada, 1960s–70s visual culture and vintage Japanese photo books.