Consistently heralded as one of the most important photobooks in the history of the medium, Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase 's RAVENS was first published in 1986 and the subsequent two editions were short-runs that sold out immediately.
This bilingual facsimile of the first edition contains a new text by the founder of the Masahisa Fukase Archives, Tomo Kosuga. His essay places Ravens in Fukase's larger work and life, and is illustrated with numerous newly discovered photographs and drawings.
Fukase's haunting series of works was made between 1975 and 1986 after a divorce and was apparently triggered by a sad train ride to his hometown. The coastal landscapes of Hokkaido serve as the backdrop for his deeply dark, impressionistic photographs of sinister flocks of crows. The work has been interpreted as an ominous allegory for post-war Japan.
"Ravens is one of the defining works in the history of photography and a high point in the photobook genre. This accumulation of accolades and the passage of time have obscured much of the fascinating detail that explains the artist's preoccupation with this motif throughout his work. It was not simply a reflection of the existential angst and anhedonia he suffered throughout his life, but manifested itself in an artistic self-identification with the raven and ultimately became a spiral of existence and practice. artist on the verge of madness, and all this before an untimely accident in 1992, a fall down the stairs of his favorite bar, led him to spend the last twenty years before his death in suspended consciousness and in medical isolation. became the singular raven frozen by his camera and immortalized on the cover of his most famous book." - Tomo Kosuga from his essay Cries of Loneliness (2017)
Hardcover bound in embossed linen, housed in a screen-printed sleeve.
Format: 26.3 x 26.3 cm
Pages: 148
