Monograph

Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase is among the most radical and original of his generation, famous for The Solitude of Ravens, in which these birds of doom, in flocks or alone, blacken the pages cover to cover of his legendary book released in 1986. He also has a lesser-known, multifaceted corpus: formal research, superimposition, collages, self-portraits, photographs reworked as sketches, black-and-white prints, Polaroids, and more.

This monograph brings together for the very first time all of his artistic work presented over 26 series, including the ones dedicated to his father (Memories of Father); without forgetting his series on cats, including his own, Sasuke; and his famous self-portraits taken in a bathtub, with a waterproof camera (‘Bukubuku’) or in pairs (‘Berobero’) touching tongues, which he later coloured.

Essays by Simon Baker, director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, and Tomo Kosuga, director of the Masahisa Fukase Archives, shed light on Fukase’s multifaceted oeuvre which dramaturgy is tinged as much with irony as with provocation.