Masahisa Fukase 1961-1991 Retrospective

"I never think that photographing a subject is enough to master everything. For me, the most important thing is how deeply I can penetrate into it and how much of myself can be reflected in it. I want to turn the act of peering into the viewing window into myself A part of the body...I can’t help but feel that photography can be more free. Maybe it is related to my own overall existence." - Masahisa Fukase

Masahisa Fukase, one of Japan's most representative post-war photographers, is famous for his melancholic and dark image style. The themes of his creations are usually closely related to his own life and are very private. He explores his inner self through the reflections of others and external objects. After the publication of the legendary work "The Crow" in 1986, it quickly became a classic in the history of modern photography. In 2010, it was named the best photography book in the past 25 years by the British Journal of Photography.

In his non-stop photography career, Fukase has explored expressions from the perspective of "privacy" and "play" in many ways, focusing the camera on himself and the things around him, such as his beloved wife, his father before his death, artist friends, etc. While revealing private life in a reserved way, it also digs out the crazy side of the heart. Through a strong focus on personal life experience, Fukase's works show his sincere love and deep pain, extremely showing the dual state of self-affirmation and self-denial, and became an important figure in the "private photography" trend in the future.

Published with the retrospective exhibition held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2023, this book "Retrospective Collection of Fukase Masahisa 1961-1991" includes important works in the career of this Japanese photography master, spanning 30 years, starting from his first work in 1961 His last solo exhibition before his death in 1992, including "Game", "Crow", "Sasuke", "Family", "ねくEye", and "ブクブク(Bubbles)" , and specially includes the rare "Yoko" series. This work, which Fukase spent a year photographing his beloved wife Yoko, has been out of print since its publication in 1978. It has finally been collected into a volume nearly half a century later.