FUKASE, Masahisa - Ravens / Karasu

Background information

"The photobook 'Ravens' - repeatedly praised as one of the most important photobooks in the history of the medium, first published in 1986 and, like subsequent editions, immediately sold out - represents one of the most outstanding works in the history of photography and a pinnacle of the 'photobook' genre. Masahisa FUKASE's series was created between 1975 and 1986 after his divorce and was apparently triggered by a sad train ride to his hometown. The coastal landscapes of Hokkaido serve as the backdrop for his deeply dark and impressionistic photographs of ominous flocks of crows. The work has also been interpreted as an ominous allegory for postwar Japan.
But eulogies and time gone by have obscured much of the fascinating detail that explains the obsession of Masahisa FUKASE with this motif throughout his work. 'Ravens' were not only a reflection of the existential angst and anhedonia (describing the inability to feel simple joy) he suffered from throughout his life, but the artistic self-identification with them eventually manifested itself into a solitary existence and artistic practice on the verge of madness. And all this before an accident in 1992, when he fell down a staircase in his favorite bar; this led him to spend the last 20 years before his death in medical isolation without consciousness. Masahisa FUKASE became that raven frozen by his camera and immortalized on the cover of his most famous book." (free translation of the text, © Tomo Kosuga, in: 'Cry of Solitude', 2017)

Content

This new edition of 'Ravens' (the original title is 'The Solitude of Ravens') by Masahisa FUKASE includes a new text by Tomo Kosuga that places this work within his work and life - illustrated with numerous photographs and drawings discovered only shortly before the publication of the new edition." (free translation of publisher's text, © Mack Books, 2017)

About the Japanese Photographer, Masahisa FUKASE (1934-2012)

Photo books by Masahisa FUKASE