“There was Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the American occupation but also the uprising of students and farmers against the seizure of land for Narita Airport. It all unleashed the desire of the young generation to say that they had enough,” says Manfred Heiting as he introduces The Japanese Photobook. In a century of vast changes, from traditions to technology, empire to war, the photobook became an institution in its own right in Japan, documenting the history of the country as it happened.
Shot in Japan over two years, Tokyo is Yours is inspired by manga, surrealism and film noir, and uses a gritty monochrome that Meg Hewitt first experimented with back in Sydney
“When I started researching the pornographic visuals, it hit me that there’s a clear formula in the way women are portrayed in them,” says Ina Jang. “I printed out some of the images, cut out the body figures and photographed them. From there, I kept making images with similar positions.”
Back in 2010 BJP asked a panel of experts to select the best photobook of the past 25 years. They chose Ravens by Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase – a dark, impressionistic journey by a man left bereft by divorce which has also been interpreted as an insight into the post-war Japanese psyche.
In Japan, years are counted the Western way as a linear progression starting from year…
The elusive Emi Anrakuji. Her work seems to have exploded onto the photography scene in…
