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11-ji 02-fun (11:02) Nagasaki. by Shomei TOMATSU

Creator: Shomei TOMATSU
Offered by: Shapero Gallery

Description
TOMATSU, Shomei.

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11-ji 02-fun (11:02) Nagasaki.
Stock Code 111161
Tokyo, Dojinsha, 1966

Current price$1,783.00
In 1961, Shomei Tomatsu began a series of close-up photographs of objects found at the explosion site at Nagasaki. These include a watch, stopped at precisely 11:02, a headless statue, and a warped glass bottle that serves as a horrific metaphor for all of the mined bodies and lost lives.

Tomatsa had initially intended for 11:02 Nagasaki to be the first in a series of four separate books, the others being Osorezan: Countryside Politicians, Homes, Asphalt, and Occupation. However, sales of 11:02 Nagasaki were poor, and the publisher, Shashin Dojinsha, collapsed soon after its publication. The remaining three volumes were never realised individually, but Tomatsu subsequently formed his own publishing company called Shaken, and in 1967, he published Nihon, which included photographs from these series. In 1968, he took the remaining unsold copies of 11:02 Nagasaki, changed the copyright page, and placed a sticker bearing the new publisher's name on the spine.

'11:02 Nagasaki, together with Hiroshima-Nagasaki Document 1961, Ken Domon's Hiroshima (1958), and Kikuji Kawada's Chizu (The Map] (1965), form one of the 'most significant memorials to the defining event in twentieth-century Japanese history. They also illustrate a clear progression towards truly world-class Japanese photographic expression' (The Photobook).

First edition, author's hanko stamp; 4to (221 x 189 mm, 8¾ x 7½ in); black-and-white photographs printed in sheet-fed gravure, text by Tamaki Motoi and interviews with survivors; photo-illustrated paper-covered boards, minor foxing, light toning to spine, original printed cardboard slipcase, lightly worn, publisher's brown printed insert laid in, without the acetate, near-fine; [172]pp.

The Photobook A History, I pp274-7; The Open Book 226-7; Photo books from the Auer Collection p454; The Japanese Photobook 1912-1990 p380.

More Information

Documentation:	Documented elsewhere (similar item)
Period:	1950-1979
Condition:	Good.
Styles / Movements:	Modern
Dealer Reference #:	111161
Incollect Reference #:	697214

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