Each bookstore will act as a concierge, recommending "the book you should read now" to FASHION HEADLINE readers. Every Saturday, we will introduce books selected by Shelf, a Harajuku bookstore specializing in foreign books (3-7-4 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo).



■ "Masahisa Fukase" by Masahisa Fukase

The long-awaited culmination of Masahisa Fukase's work. 40 years of pursuing the personal and the playful.

Masahisa Fukase was a photographer active at the forefront of Japanese photography since the 1960s. However, a freak accident in 1992 put an end to his work. While "Crow" remains a timeless masterpiece, the majority of his other works have never been introduced. This definitive work offers a bird's-eye view of the enigmatic photographer Fukase's 40-year career, revealing for the first time the full scope of his photographic expression. Its 26 chapters total. Born into a family of photographers who ran a photography studio in Hokkaido, Fukase used a wide range of techniques to explore his photographic expression, rooted in the perspectives of "personality" and "play." Photography was always at the center of his life, and his inner libido often consumed those around him and even led him to his own downfall. This book organizes each work chronologically, carefully exploring the creative intent and background of each work through the after-photographs and memoirs Fukase left behind in magazines. Fukase's work, previously only seen in fragments, emerges as a trajectory, attempting to explore the essence of what he sought to capture through his camera throughout his life. A large volume filled with the richness and power of photographic expression, to be handed down to the future.