Chikashi TanakaMEHERLATION (WITH OBI)

A collection of celebrity snapshots by Chikashi Tanaka.

A photographer, who is considered first-rate in Japan, flattered me, saying that I took interesting photos which even professionals could not take. Eventually, that caused me to become crazed about photography. If my photographs, which do not follow the basic principles of composition and lighting, have any merits, they probably are due to my work as a hair dresser. This work, which puts me in direct contact with another person's hair and skin, must have served to shorten the distance between myself and my subject.

What's meherlation? The title of this book may be totally nonsensical in English. In Japan, when someone points to another person saying "That person is me-her", it is often said with a certain contempt. But I accept this title.

Me-her expresses the energy and spirit of someone who can go crazy about something splendid. Then, too, meher-lation suggests a certain type of relationship between me and my photo subjects. If i did not have feelings of yearn-ing, and if there were not people who excited my imagination, l would not have been able to take all these portraits.

Many people who are called stars, has a fanatical need to express themselves, and they are constantly presenting themselves in that way to others. On the other hand, they have their private selves, which they reveal only to those whom they trust. Not being a professional photographer, I do not intend to photograph the fanatical, public, side of them. The point of my photographs is expressed by what Andy Warhol said: "My idea of a good picture is one that is in focus and of a famous person doing something unfamous".

— Chikashi Tanaka 

Softcover, 28,5 x 23 cm, b&w photographs. Original cover with an engraved abstract design. First edition. With obi. In very good condition, other than a bump on the cover and wearing marks on the obi (see pictures).