Provoke 4 & 5: First Abandon the World of Pseudo-Certainty

Provoke group
Provoke 4 & 5: First Abandon the World of Pseudo-Certainty

Photographs: Provoke group

Text: Amano Michie, Nakahira, Okada and Taki

Publisher: Tabata Shoten

340 pages

Year: 1970

Comments: Softcover under dust jacket, 210 x 150 mm. First edition, 1970. Black and white photographs. Text in Japanese. In very good condition other than a tiny scratch on dust jacket .

As Kotaro Iizawo explains in “The History of Japanese Photography”, the aim of the enormously influential Provoke movement was to "rethink the rigidified relation between word and image, and to create 'new language, in short, new thought.'" Founded by Koji Taki and Nakahira Takuma in late 1968 (Daido Moriyama joined the group for their second issue), the group produced "fragmented images that completely demolished the established aesthetic and grammar of photography." In keeping with the tumultuous events of that year, the artists of Provoke were fierce in their desire to do away with received ideas and meanings ("the world of pseudo-certainty"). And, in true avant-garde spirit, theirs was a frontal assault on the medium and the institutions in which they were working. As individuals, however, they were constantly at odds with one another; Provoke, their house organ, ceased publication in August 1969 after only three issues. Provoke 4&5, published a year after the dissolution of the group, represents their final statement and contains five portfolios.The portfolios are by Nakahira, Moriyama, Takanashi.