Tokyo (with vinyl and obi)

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Tokyo (with vinyl and obi)

Photographs: Shomei Tomatsu

Text: Shoji Yamagishi

Publisher: Chuo koron sha

120 pages

Year: 1971

Comments: Hardcover under dust jacket with obi with the vinyl cover, 265 x 217 mm. In very good condition other than edgwear on cover and some stains on back cover.

Part of the Eizo no gendai series number 8. A collection of post-war portraits with text by the artist in Japanese, with translations in English.

The photographs of Yasuhiro Ishimoto always reflect theseriousness and independence of the photographer in his attempt to grasp the essence of his subjects. He has carried with him, from the United States to Japan, qualities that form the core of modern photography. "Katsura," "Someday, Somewbere" and "Chicago, Chicago" are fine examples of the deliberate precision with which this artist works, the care taken for every stroke.

One need not speak of the solidness of Ishimoto's work when it is there as testimony before us.

The present collection is interesting in that it contains pieces quite different from those we know best, If "Chicago, Chicago" and the others mentioned are considered straightforward, tibe usually serious Ishimoto has given us glimpses of his lighter, earthy moods in this collection.

His tendency towards completeness and perfection is at times a giveaway, exposing the egoism of the photographer.

As such, Ishimoto will never deviate from his philosophy that his pictures must be taken for himself, to satisfy his own esthetic and spiritual standards, but the pictures in this collection show that his work always echoes his involvement with both his subject and its audience.

The pictures in this volume were taken over a period of nine years, from 1962 to 1970, centering on Tokyo and the Shonan coast where he lived during the same period. They are products not only of the lens but of endless walking, sometimes an average of twenty or thirty kilometers a day. Getting off the train at Shinagawa station, he would walk to Asakusa or to Shinjuku, all the while taking pictures. "In Chicago," he states, "I walked even more.

From morning till night, and I took even more pictures." For Ishimoto, Chicago is his point of departure. For him, "City" is Chicago. When he fixed upon Tokyo as his theme, there can be no doubt that the streets, buildings and people of Chicago were there in the background, as his reference.

(Shoji Yamagishi)