VENICE-NIGHTSCAPES

Ikko Narahara
VENICE-NIGHTSCAPES

Photographs: Ikko Narahara

Publisher: Iwanami Shoten

108 pages

Year: 1985

Comments: Hardcover under dust jacket, 29,7 x 31,3 cm, b&w photographs. First edition. Kept in very good condition, other than two little stains on the first blank page (see picture), Some wears and scratches on the front and back dustcover.

Narahara, whose work is highly regarded in Japan and abroad, captures numerous facets of culture as they unfold in various sites from a unique macroscopic perspective.

For Narahara, Venice is a city that, “lives in joy after having savored the fact that all occurrences on earth will finally pass.” His interest in the city resulted in a trilogy of books: Arcades of Light – Piazza San Marco (1981), which is over 40 meters in length and documents the arch corridor of Piazza San Marco; Venice – Nightscapes (1985), which captured the brilliant darkness of the city on water; and Venetian Light (1987), his first book featuring all color photography. Venice – Nightscapes received the Award of the Year from the Photographic Society of Japan in 1986.

Ikko Narahara was born in 1931 in Fukuoka Prefecture. He enrolled in a Master’s program (Art history) at Waseda University and in 1955 joined Jitsuzaisha [Real Existence], an avant-garde artist group together with Masuo Ikeda and Ay-O. At this time, Narahara socialized with artists such as Tatsuo Ikeda and On Kawara as well as Shuzo Takiguchi. During the same period, he met Shomei Tomatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, and together they set up an independent agency named VIVO (dissolved in 1961). Narahara had actively travelled the world, shifting his base of research and practice from Paris (1962-65) to New York (1970-74), holding numerous exhibitions throughout the course of his career.