The Japanese Photobook 1912-1990

Manfred Heiting
The Japanese Photobook 1912-1990

Photographs: Various

Text: Manfred Heiting, Kaneko Ryuichi, Fujimura Satomi, Duncan Forbes, Mitsuda Yuri, Lizawa Kotaro, Shirayama Mari & Matthew S. Witkovsky

Publisher: Steidl

578 pages

Pictures: 3500

Year: 2017

Comments: Green hardcover, 263 x 287 mm. First edition, 2017. Four-color process. Text in english and in japanese.

This book illustrates the development of photography as seen in photo publications in Japan—from the time of influence by European and American pictorialism, the German Bauhaus and Imperial military propaganda, to the complete collapse and destruction of the country in 1945. Then followed a new beginning : with the unique self-determination of a young generation of photographers and visual artists highlighted by the “Provoke” style as well as protest and war documentation of the late 1950s to the early ’70s, the signature Japanese photobook, as we have come to know it, was born.

With detailed information and illustrations of over 400 photo publications this is the first extensive English-language survey of Japanese photobooks of this period.