Masahisa Fukase - From Window (LIMITED TO 120, MINT CONDITION) - 2023

VERY BEAUTIFUL, SMALL, CHARMING BOOK by one of the biggest figures in Japanese photography:
Masahisa Fukase, famous for "Ravens" (Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, Volume 1, page 306).

STRONGLY LIMITED to 120 (!) COPIES ONLY.

The book is showing pictures from Fukase's series "From Window" from 1973:
"In the summer of 1973, Fukase embarked on a period of particularly intense fixation with photographing his wife, and these pictures are the result of that season of compulsion. Shot each morning from the window of their apartment on the fourth floor of a sprawling suburban housing complex, Fukase captured Wanibe in the seconds as she was leaving their home to start out for her day job at a gallery in Tokyo. This instant became a ritualised moment of encounter between the couple, facing each-other across the threshold presented by the day ahead, with one foot in the home they shared and the other facing out towards a world that lay beyond the confines of their life together."
(Michael Hoppen Gallery)

New, mint, unread - COLLECTOR'S COPY.

Photographer Masahisa Fukase (1934–2012) carved out a unique place in the history of Japanese photography in the 1960s by focusing on his personal life. He pointed his camera at those in his immediate surroundings: his wife, Yoko, his extended family, his cat. Yet, while exposing his own life through a loving gaze and carefree sense of humour, he simultaneously set about exploring the madness deep within himself. Fukase’s career was tragically cut short when he suffered a fall in 1992, subsequently suffering severe memory impairment and aphasia. He never took another photograph.

Guiding Light (Michael Hoppen Gallery), London. In collaboration with the Masahisa Fukase Archives. 2023. First edition, first printing.

Hardcover in linen (as issued). 160 x 217 mm. 40 pages. Photos: Masahisa Fukase. Design: Pony Ltd. Text in English and Japanese.

Great book by the highly influential Japenese photographer - in perfect condition.

About the photographer:
"Masahisa Fukase, born 1934, Hokkaido, died 2012, graduated from the Nihon University College of Art`s Photography Department in 1956. Fukase became a freelance photographer in 1968 after working at the Nippon Design Center and Kawade Shobo Shinsha Publishers. His major books include Yugi (Homo Ludence), Chuokoronsha, 1971; Yoko (Asahi Sonorama, 1978), and Karasu (Ravens), Sokyusha, 1986. Countless solo exhibitions have been dedicaed to Fukase`s work, and his photographs have been included in group exhibitions at the MoMA, NY; Oxford Museum of Art; Fondation Cartier pour l`Art Contemporain, Paris; V&A, London. Fukase also won numerous prizes, including the 2nd Ina Nobuo Award in 1976 for his exhibition 'Karasu' and the Special Award at the 8th Higashikawa Photography Awards in 1992. Fukase tragically fell down a set of stairs in 1992 and suffered a traumatic brain injury from which he never recovered. He passed away in 2012."
(from Mack Books, the publisher of the "Ravens" reprint)

About "Ravens":
"Consistently proclaimed as one of the most important photobooks in the history of the medium, Solitude of Ravens by Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase was first published in 1984 and the two subsequent editions have both been short runs and have sold out immediately. Fukase`s haunting series of work was made between 1975 and 1982 in the aftermath of a divorce and was apparently triggered by a mournful train journey to his hometown. The coastal landscapes of Hokkaido serve as the backdrop for his profoundly dark and impressionistic photographs of ominous flocks of crows. The work has been interpreted as an ominous allegory for postwar Japan."
(from Mack Books, the publisher of the reprint)