Book Review “Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965 – 74″ by Jeffrey Ladd at 5B4 Blog
by Ferdinand on August 24, 2010
Jeffrey Ladd reviewed our publication Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965 – 74 in his 5B4 Blog:
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The winner of the contemporary book [at Rencontres D’Arles Photography Festival 2010] went to Only Photography’s fine book “Yutaka Takanashi Photography 1965-74″. Only Photography is Roland Angst’s independent publishing house in Berlin. Their books are beautifully produced with a strong care towards design and printing and the Takanashi book is their best so far. Past titles have been Ray K. Metzker’s ‘Automagic’ and Frauke Eigen’s ‘Shoku’.
Photo by Jeffrey Ladd
This hardcover book presents an edit of 41 images from Toshi-e in a large vertical format and the selection corresponded to an exhibition of mostly vintage prints that was on display at Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne, Germany. This marked the first solo showing of Takanashi in Germany. One of the gallery directors, Ferdinand Bruggemann is a specialist on Japanese photography and contributes a fine essay on Takanashi and his masterwork,Toshi-e. A second essay by Hitoshi Suzuki, who was an assistant to Kohei Suguira the book’s designer, provides a personal remembrance of discovering the book in Seguira’s design studio while it was being created. A short preface from the gallerist Priska Pasquer opens the book.
Photo by Jeffrey Ladd
Yutaka Takanashi Photography 1965-74 is beautifully realized with three different cover images silk screened onto the cloth of the boards. A yellow translucent dustjacket wraps the book and the color I have been told reflects the tone off an exhibition poster from the first solo exhibit of this work in Japan in the 1980s. The printing of the plates is also exquisite – a modern offset interpretation of the original’s lush gravure which remains rich and clean. The design reflects the twisting and turning of the original (horizontals oriented vertically) but with additional gatefolds for a few of the horizontal pictures. It was printed in an edition of only 500, 30 of which come signed and numbered with a print. An additional 100 were signed and numbered by Takanashi. I strongly recommend this book if you can get one. They are a bit pricey but I assure you it is because these books were expensive to produce.
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Jeffrey Ladd @5B4 Blog
One comment
This is really a very detailed book review. Very interesting. Recently, I stumbled into one book entitled “The Project Book: A Simple and Direct Approach to Project Management.” I find it very important and useful as well.
by Zaira Jane on December 6, 2010 at 1:41 am #