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Born in Tokyo, 1938. Graduated from the Spanish Department of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Entered a publishing company where he worked for the magazine, Contemporary Eye. From the mid-1960s, Nakahira began publishing many essays on photography and film in various magazines and around the same time started taking photographs. Co-founded a quarterly coterie magazine for photography, Provoke, subtitled “Provocative Materials for Thought” with Koji Taki, Yutaka Takanashi, and Takahiko Okada (Daido Moriyama contributed to the second and third issues). Provoke’s grainy, blurry and unfocused photographs moved away from established aesthetics and conventions to make a strong impact on the photographic scene in Japan at that time. After the publication of For a Language to Come, in the title essay of the 1973 collection of his writings, Why an Illustrated Botanical Dictionary? he critically reexamined his previous photographs. Immediately after the publication of the seminal book, Duel on Photography, which coupled Nakahira’s essays together with photographs by Kishin Shinoyama, Nakahira succumbed to an illness in November 1977 that brought him near death. Though he was tormented with memory loss and aphasia, Nakahira gradually recovered and started taking photographs once more.

In the 1980s, he published two photobooks of his works after 1978, A New Gaze and Adieu à X, and later, Hysteric Six Nakahira Takuma in 2002. In 2003 the large-scale retrospective, “Nakahira Takuma: Degree Zero –Yokohama” at the Yokohama Museum of Art was held with more than 800 photographs from his formative period to 2003 and his work received renewed attention. Nakahira had solo exhibitions at Shougoarts, Tokyo in 2004 and 2007 and participated in many group exhibitions in Japan and abroad. Two films on Nakahira, directed by Takashi Homma and Masashi Kohara were made. In 2007, a collection of more than fifty of Nakahira’s essays up to 1977 was published. Nakahira passed in 2015.

A luxurious set of high-quality prints celebrating Provoke’s legacy

Featuring six artists (each represented with twelve collotype prints) who were either directly involved or influenced by the ideas, philosophy and approach of the legendary magazine “Provoke”, as well as essays by Simon Baker, Ryuichi Kaneko, Kotaro Iizawa and John W. Dower, “The Provoke: Generation Revels In a Turbulent Time” examines and celebrates the lasting impact of the Provoke movement on Japanese photography.
Printed by the skilled artisans of Kyoto-based Benrido, each of these high-quality collotype prints was made using oil-based pigment inks and offers an excellent visual reproduction, exceptional gradation and strong durability.

This regular edition consists of 72 prints in total (six artists à twelve prints each) as well as one additional cover print (unsigned). During the check-out process, you will be able to choose your preferred cover print from a selection of six and the design of the wooden box (espresso or clear maple) that houses the collection.

Included artists:
Daido Moriyama (12 monochrome prints)
Yutaka Takahashi (12 monochrome prints)
Hitomi Watanabe (12 monochrome prints)
Kazuo Kitai (12 monochrome prints)
Miyako Ishiuchi (12 monochrome prints)
Takuma Nakahira (10 monochrome prints, 2 color prints)

Collotype, one of the oldest techniques of creating photographic prints, is a printing process that involves oil-based pigment inks. The technique is revered for its excellent reproducibility, the smoothness and depth of its textures and its strong durability. It is often employed for the reproduction of important cultural works.
Benrido, founded in 1905 in Kyoto, is one of the most experienced collotype printing studios in the world.

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Signed Vocalise

Kotori KAWASHIMA

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Photography & art in books

shashasha is an online bookshop based in Tokyo, Japan.

Since shashasha’s launch in 2012, we have specialized in photobooks and artbooks by a wide range of artists from all over the world. Our lineup includes new publications and self-published works as well as second-hand, rare or out-of-print books by newcomers, established artists and legendary masters.

Each book available on shashasha has been hand-selected and carefully considered. Based in Japan, we make use of our unique perspective and expertise to offer a diverse and enriching catalogue featuring works by interesting publishers and artists from Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and the Americas.

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