Independent art and photobook publications, combining achievements in the fields of design, printing and photography, have been an integral part of Japanese culture from the 1960s to the present day. Widely accepted by society, the Japanese photobook has achieved worldwide recognition and has inspired generations of artists from all over the world. Alien to the idea of photography as a means of documenting and transmitting events, it focuses the viewer's attention primarily on the skills and techniques involved, adhering to or completely ignoring the narrative line, creating images devoid of literal meaning – not texts, but anti-texts – which makes it a work of art in its own right.
“Japanese Photobook Exhibition”, curated by French photographer and publisher Sebastian Arthur Howe, is part of the first edition of Sofia Art Book Fair 2017, dedicated to art and photobooks, and includes 28 achievements of the Japanese photobook – independent editions, limited editions, classics and reprints – created from the 1970s to the present day. The iconic works of world-famous photographers Daido Moriyama, “71-ΝΥ”, “Record 23”, “Νοrtern” and Takuma Nakahira, “For a Language to Come”, represent only a small part of the collection, illustrating in a unique and interesting way a fragment of the history of Japanese modern and contemporary photography.
It is part of the program of the first Bulgarian Art and Photobook Festival, which we have already told you about.
Opening: September 13, 2017, 7:00 PM
Location: Hip Hip Library, 30 Serdika Street
Closing: September 27, 2017
Some of the books featured in the exhibition:
Nakahira Takuma – For a Language to Come
Yu Yamauchi – Yoake
Takashi Homma – Mushrooms From The Forest
Taisuke Koyama – The City Breathes and Ages
Jun Morinaga – River, Its Shadow of Shadows
Keizo Kitajima – Photo Express Tokyo
Hiroshi Nomura – Slash
Daido Moriyama – 71-NY
Daido Moriyama – Northern
Daido Moriyama – Record No.23
Seiji Kumagai – Spring
Yoichi Nagano – Breathless
Takehiko Nakafuji – Paris
Wataru Yamamoto – Drawing a Line
Takashi Arai – Monuments
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