Deutsch
English
"These photographs were taken during the years between 1998 and 2008 using six cameras made by four different manufacturers and films in four different formats.
"Zokei (= created landscape)', the title of this book, is derived from 'paysagement' a notion presented by a French geographer in his examination of the cityscapes of Tokyo and other megalopolises developing around the world since modern times.
The current situation in which there is no model for what 'paysagement' should aim at seems suitable to our time at a turning point of entire civilization, not to mention technology.
Thus mimicry, imitation and pantomime are and will be prevalent in photography and manners of expression. As for the history of photography, when such dispositions that every modern man is supposed to have as individual personality, originality and identity are differentiated up until now, the superficialization and fragmentation of photographic modes suit the space-time representation of here and now.
Then the ultimate question will be if I can imitate the subject on the other side of the lens until I and the photographed are unified and sublated and vision can still be maintained. The viewers' honest feedback is most welcome." (publisher's note, Superlabo, 2015)
About the photographer, Seiji KURATA (b. 1945 in Tokyo):
Seiji KURATA graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1968. He taught in secondary school and worked in oils, printmaking, and experimental movies.
In 1976 he practised under Daidō Moriyama in an independent photography workshop.
For his first book, called 'Flash Up', (*remade in 2013) KURATA won the 5th Kimura Ihei Award in 1980. For the black-and-white photographs here, Kurata used flash and a medium format camera. Resulting in a detailed portrait of a world of bōsōzoku, gangsters, rightists, strippers, transvestites, and so on: as Parr and Badger point out, these are old subjects; but in his 'highly polished, detailed' work, KURATA 'has an unerring instinct for pictures that suggest stories'. Photo Cabaret and 80's Family continued in this direction. This Japanese work of KURATA's is anthologized in his later volume Japan.
In 1992 Seiji KURATA won the PSJ award; a long stay in Mongolia in 1994 led to the book 'Toransu Ajia', which continued color work of the Asian mainland started with 'Dai-Ajia'.
In 1999 KURATA's book 'Japan' won the Kodansha Publishing Culture Award (講談社出版文化賞) for a work of photography. KURATA's prints are to find in the permanent collections of ICP (New York), the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
"Zokei (= created landscape)', the title of this book, is derived from 'paysagement' a notion presented by a French geographer in his examination of the cityscapes of Tokyo and other megalopolises developing around the world since modern times.
The current situation in which there is no model for what 'paysagement' should aim at seems suitable to our time at a turning point of entire civilization, not to mention technology.
Thus mimicry, imitation and pantomime are and will be prevalent in photography and manners of expression. As for the history of photography, when such dispositions that every modern man is supposed to have as individual personality, originality and identity are differentiated up until now, the superficialization and fragmentation of photographic modes suit the space-time representation of here and now.
Then the ultimate question will be if I can imitate the subject on the other side of the lens until I and the photographed are unified and sublated and vision can still be maintained. The viewers' honest feedback is most welcome." (publisher's note, Superlabo, 2015)
About the photographer, Seiji KURATA (b. 1945 in Tokyo):
Seiji KURATA graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1968. He taught in secondary school and worked in oils, printmaking, and experimental movies.
In 1976 he practised under Daidō Moriyama in an independent photography workshop.
For his first book, called 'Flash Up', (*remade in 2013) KURATA won the 5th Kimura Ihei Award in 1980. For the black-and-white photographs here, Kurata used flash and a medium format camera. Resulting in a detailed portrait of a world of bōsōzoku, gangsters, rightists, strippers, transvestites, and so on: as Parr and Badger point out, these are old subjects; but in his 'highly polished, detailed' work, KURATA 'has an unerring instinct for pictures that suggest stories'. Photo Cabaret and 80's Family continued in this direction. This Japanese work of KURATA's is anthologized in his later volume Japan.
In 1992 Seiji KURATA won the PSJ award; a long stay in Mongolia in 1994 led to the book 'Toransu Ajia', which continued color work of the Asian mainland started with 'Dai-Ajia'.
In 1999 KURATA's book 'Japan' won the Kodansha Publishing Culture Award (講談社出版文化賞) for a work of photography. KURATA's prints are to find in the permanent collections of ICP (New York), the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
- Format
- Hand sewn pb., 21,5 x 28 cm., 32 pp. (double gatefold page incl.), 23 b/w ills., text language: English, Ltd. to 750 copies (three covers, 250 each)