Koishi Kiyoshi
1936
Book cover for Koishi Kiyoshi "Satsuei / sakuga no shingiho [New Techniques for Shooting and Producing Photographs]" (Tokyo: Genkosha, 1936)

Book cover
Swann Galleries - New York
Courtesy of Swann Galleries (Auction, May 15, 2008, #2146, Lot 112)
 
Illustrated with reproductions of Kiyoshi's photographs. 8vo, silver-stamped boards, lightly dampstained and foxed; split near front hinge; printed card slipcase, worn. first edition, signed by kiyoshi.
 
In the publication offered here Kiyoshi Koishi''s experiments with multiple exposures, infrared photography, solarization, and photomontage appear alongside his guidance to amateur photographers. This text further articulated his vision of "poetic reality" and invigorating artistic sensibility, which helped fuel the early Japanese modernist period of New Photography. This vision, powerful and lyrical, represented a resurgence of the narrative content in photography.
 
In opposition to the earlier Pictorialist movement in Japan, New Photography (shinko shashin) heralded the beginning of the modernist age in Japan, which was influenced by the New Objectivity and Bauhaus design movements. It may be characterized as an era of experimentation with the medium and discovering new ways of seeing.
 
LL/28633