Jun Morinaga Eugene Smith (3 results)

Condition: Fine. The book is in fine condition.

Hardcover. Condition: As New. 1st Edition. First edition, first and only printing. Signed in Japanese in silver marker on the first page. Hardcover. Fine gray silk cloth-covered boards with white title stamped in English on cover, and in Japanese on spine, with a photographically illustrated paper-covered slipcase. Photographs and text (in Japanese and English) by Jun Morinaga. Essays (in Japanese and English) by W. Eugene Smith (for whom Morinaga worked as an assistant), Miyabi Ichikawa, Koichi Tanigawa, and Seigow Matsuoka. Includes a chronology (in Japanese and English). Designed by Kohei Sugiura and Hitoshi Suzuki. 166 pp. (including numerous gatefolds), with 89 black and white plates, printed by Nissha Printing Co., Ltd., Kyoto. 12 3/8 x 10 7/8 inches. [Cited in Ryuichi Kaneko and Ivan Vartanian, Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s. (New York: Aperture, 2009).]. As New in As New slipcase, in the original publisher's cardboard shipping case. From the White Room Gallery: "Born in the Nagasaki Prefecture in 1937, Jun Morinaga graduated from Nihon University in 1960, and landed the plum position as W. Eugene Smith's photographic assistant for two years in Tokyo. In 1963 he was honored as Japan's New Photographer of the Year. For forty years he has been fascinated by the relationship between an object, and the photographic representation of that object, especially as this applies to his lifelong obsession with water. He began by documenting the decaying rivers running through Tokyo, and now produces evocative, moody waterscapes of the endlessly changing oceans of the world. He is included in numerous important museums collections, and has been honored by both the Japan Critics Association, and the Photographic Society of Japan." Signed by Author.

Rilegato. Condition: ottimo. "An amazing book of photographs of river waters, taken by the photographer who was assistant to W. Eugene Smith in Japan in 1961 & 1962. These images were taken by Morinaga from 1960 to 1963. He established his own studio in 1969. In his introduction, Smith writes in part: "The photographs in this book contain no actual human beings. Yet, to me, these photographs hauntingly seethe with undercurrents of the damnation factors of our times. To appreciate them the viewer must break any narrowness of traditional recognitions.It is an experience worth the effort.There are few photographs that profoundly move me, that change my life. Jun Morinaga's photographs did both. Many months after Jun was working with me, he sat on the floor and we tried to converse. He spoke that "You are the master, what can I do to improve my photographs?" And I replied with all the sincerity of my being -- "In what you do you are the master -- I only wish I could photograph as well." Text: Morinaga Jun, Smith W.Eugene, Ichikawa Miyabi, Tanigawa Koichi, Matsuoka Seigow, Morinaga Jun in English and Japanese. cm 28x30,5; 89 BW ills.; hardcover with slipcase, fine condition. Quoted in "Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s", p. 218-219.