Nakahira Takuma

Nakahira Takuma
Kitarubeki Kotoba no Tameni (For a language to come)., 1970
1753

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 in. (21.2 x 30 cm)

Tokyo:Fudo-sha.



103 black-and-white photographs printed using the heliogravure method. Text by Okada Takahido. Graphic concept by Kimura Tsunesisa. Original stiff wrappers, with printed dust jacket. Cardboard slipcase with title and name of author printed on the covering sticker.



Through his photographs and writings Takuma Nakahira was both the chief polemicist for the Provoke group and its political conscience. Along with Moriyama's Sashin yo Sayonara (Bye Bye Photography), his book Kitarubeki Kotoba no Tameni (For a language to come) marks the apogee of the Provoke period. It exhibits all the visual characteristics of the Provoke style, yet differs from Moriyama’s book in that Nakahira's sensibility is quite dissimilar. Being more political in his general outlook, Nakahira uses hidden themes to express his antagonism to the colonization of Japan by American consumerism. For example, Kitarubeki Kotoba no Tameni closes with several shots of the sea: a dark and menacing sea, a metaphor for social constriction and political claustrophobia. The other overwhelming metaphor in the book is fire, an apocalyptic, post-Hiroshima conflagration, often expressed indirectly in Nakahira's night pictures with swathes of burned-out lens flare.

[Ref. Martin Parr & Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History vol.I, pp. 292-293; Ryuichi Kaneko & Ivan Vartanian, Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s, pp. 130-135].

Price Upon Request

Nakahira Takuma
Kitarubeki Kotoba no Tameni- For a Language to Come, 1970
2203

12 x 8 1/2 in. (30.5 x 21.5 cm)

First edition. Paperback with illustrated cover and dust jacket; original cardboard slipcase with title and name of author printed on the covering sticker. 103 black and white photographs printed using the heliogravure method. Text by Okada Takahido. Graphic concept by Kimura Tsunesisa. Nakahira was the instigator of Provoke and, in a sense, its political conscience. This work definitely reflects the best of the group's aspirational work even though it appeared well after they split up. Mainly nighttime photographs, these images, taken between 1965-1970, have great expressive and lyrical force.

Price Upon Request

Nakahira Takuma
Kitarubeki Kotoba no Tameni. For a Language to Come, 1970
2180

12 x 8 1/2 in. (30.5 x 21.6 cm)

Paperback with an illustrated cover and dust jacket. Original cardboard slipcase with title and name of author printed on the covering sticker. 103 black and white photographs printed using the heliogravure method. Text by Okada Takahido. Graphic concept by Kimura Tsunesisa. Nakahira was the instigator of the movement PROVOKE and, in a sense, its political conscience. This work reflects the best of the group's aspirational work even though it appeared well after they split up. Mainly nighttime photographs, these images taken between 1965-1970 have great expressive and lyrical force.

Price Upon Request