A special selection around Ishimoto
- “Kenzô Tange – Kengo Kuma Architects of the Tokyo Games”, 2024, Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris and Toto publishing
Kenzô Tange and Kengo Kuma are the architects of the sports infrastructures built for the 1964 and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (postponed to 2021): the Yoyogi National Gymnasium and the National Stadium. This catalog of the exhibition presented at the Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris in 2024 highlights the importance of these achievements in the career of these two architects, allowing us to understand their influence on Japanese architecture today and their fascination with the Katsura Imperial Villa (Kyoto, 17th century).
- “Lucia Moholy: Exposures”, 2024, Troeller Jordan
Prolific author, photographer, portraitist and documentarian, Lucia Moholy defies categorization. As active in avant-garde circles as in the field of information sciences, she has enabled a broader understanding of visual reproduction. Lucia Moholy: Exposures presents for the first time the full extent of her writings and photographs.
- “Transbordeur No. 5 – Society history photography”, 2021, Macula
The fifth issue of Transbordeur magazine explores the history of the relationship between photography and design from the 19th to the 21st century. Different themes are addressed: the role of photography in design-related publications; the relationships between photographers and designers, learning photography in design schools; photography as a material for design (visual collection, experiments, reflection on the project, exhibition, archives and advertising).
- « Éloge de l’ombre », 2011, Verdier
In this essay on Japanese aesthetics, published in 1933, the writer defends an aesthetic of penumbra in reaction to the Western aesthetic of “all enlightened”. It compares various uses of light and illumination among the Japanese and Westerners and explores the Japanese conception of beauty.
- “The Spirit of Avant-Garde Photography: Transforming Nothing Much”, 2024, Akaaka
In the 1930s, a large number of works influenced by surrealism were exhibited in Japan under the name “avant-garde photography”. Among these works, we find those of Shuzo Takiguchi (1903-1979), who shortly after founded the Association of Avant-Garde Photography with Nobuya Abe (1913-1971). Their theoretical approach to the photographic medium would in turn influence other experimental Japanese artists such as Kiyoji Ōtsuji (1923-2001) and Shigeo Gochō (1946-1983). Collectively, these artists had an indelible impact on 20th-century photography in Japan. A foundational exhibition catalog about their work and legacy.
- “New Bauhaus Chicago Experiment Photography”, 2024, Hirmer
In 2019, the Bauhaus Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung Berlin presents its “New Bauhaus Photography” collection, unique in Europe. It brings together the protagonists and institutions who, since the founding of the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, have inspired, created and collected photography linked to this movement. The collection also contains a wide range of works: abstract photograms, material experiments, conceptual works.
- “Modern architecture in Japan”, 2022, MACK
Manfredo Tafuri (1935-1994), the famous Italian architectural historian, published L’architettura moderna in Giappone in 1964. Tafuri’s ideas on Japanese architecture were formed primarily through texts, notably articles by magazines and contemporary photographs. How did Tafuri come to choose the achievements of Japanese architects as the central point of his reflections on modern architecture? What happens when an architectural historian relies solely on photographs to pass judgment on a building?
