Each bookstore will act as a concierge, recommending "must-read books" to FASHION HEADLINE readers. Every Thursday, each branch of the art bookstore "NADiff" will introduce a recommended book. This time, we'll be introducing NADiff du Champ in Tokyo's Ginza district.
■ "Provoke - Between Protest and Performance"
This book is a catalog published by the German publisher Steidl in conjunction with the "PROVOKE" exhibition, which was held in Vienna in January of this year. Following Vienna, the exhibition will travel to Winterthur, Switzerland, Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
"Provoke" is the name of a photography fanzine founded in 1968. The style of its founders and the artists around them is sometimes referred to as "Provoke-esque," and the era in which they were active is sometimes called the "Provoke era." As the subtitle "Provocative Materials for Thought" suggests, the word "provocation" signifies its provocation. Its founders included Takuma Nakahira, Yutaka Takanashi, Koji Taki, and Takahiko Okada. Daido Moriyama, who joined Provoke from issue two onward, was also a key photographer. Despite its demise after only three issues, the term "Provoke" remains deeply ingrained in the history of photography and remains a subject of ongoing debate and research. What exactly were they challenging? In the social climate of the 1960s and 1970s, marked by the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and student protests such as the Yasuda Auditorium incident at the University of Tokyo, the role of photography was questioned. Are the images truly "real"? And what exactly is the "reality" that photography presents? The "images" of events shared globally—even those that could be witnessed without actually being there—and the corresponding "words" had become mere formalities. In First, Abandon the World of Certainty, a compilation of Provoke photographs, Takuma Nakahira expresses his discomfort with his own and society's insensitivity to the abundance of war photographs: "Perhaps this is related to the fact that these vast numbers of photographs, while calling themselves 'documentary' photographs, do not in fact look directly at the world, but rather only seek to illustrate the worn-out formula of war → misery → anti-war."
The photographs in this book are all grainy, out of focus, and rough, and some are difficult to discern what they are. His style, sometimes mocked as "so, blurry, and out of focus," is a testament to his own reexamination of the act of "seeing" the world. They are not necessarily beautiful or in focus, nor are they decisive moments. Glancing sideways at the scenery that passes by every day, sometimes staggering, sometimes drawn to something, some forgotten, some memorable. These are afterimages that can no longer be named in words. The struggles of these photographers, who reexamined the very act of seeing and photographing the world, began with Provoke and branched out into different paths. A common thread was a skepticism and challenge of the ambiguous notion of "reality." In today's world, where "authentic" photographs and word-based images are more prevalent than ever, how do the struggles of Japanese photographers of the time appear to the world? The works of the major photographers featured in this volume are far too numerous to list, including Takuma Nakahira, Shomei Tomatsu, Daido Moriyama, Yutaka Takanashi, Kazuo Kitai, Eikoh Hosoe, Koji Enokura, and Nobuyoshi Araki. Artists close to Provoke, such as Shuji Terayama and Genpei Akasegawa, are also featured, making this volume a valuable look into not only photography but also the work of those who influenced and were influenced by Provoke.
Reviewing Provoke, which not only includes interviews with leading figures in the field but also focuses on the social conditions of the time and has been brought together to this extent through printing and selection by an overseas publisher, is sure to bring fresh surprises that will make us reexamine our own view of the world today.
[Book Information]
Provoke-Between Protest and Performance
Publisher: Steidl
Format: 190mm x 250mm / Softcover / 680 pages (600 photographs)
Price: 10,240 yen
