PhotoEspaña, the largest photo festival in Spain, pays tribute to Masahisa Fukase, the Japanese photographer, by presenting the complete Ravens series, after Madrid, in Santander in Cantabria.
Born on the island of Hokkaido, in the north of Japan in 1934, Masahisa is the eldest of the Fukase family who managed his own photo studio previously founded by his grandfather. Not very enchanted by the idea of taking over the family business, he preferred independence by going to study in the photography department of Nihon University, in Tokyo, a city that fascinated him. He then stayed there to work in advertising before developing more radical work, focused on personal themes of intimacy and his relationship to the world. He therefore burst into the world of Japanese photography in the 1960s, shaking up the conventions of the time. His life was strewn with misfortune, great passion and depression. He had a fall one evening in 1992, which left him in a coma until… 2012, before he died.
Previously, he shared the life of Yokho, his great love, he photographed her for around ten years until the separation. Back in Hokkaido, a depressive period followed which made him identify with crows, animal symbols of solitude and misery, very present in Japan, even in the cities.
“I became a crow with a camera,” he said.
These ominous birds appear here in several forms, in group flight or solitary; their traces contrasting in snowy soils. Flying away in grainy black and white mists. Photographed from far away, up close, day or night. Fukase himself said that he did not know how to photograph these black birds in the twilight of the evening, when they come together in a murder. So he used the flash, which made the eyes of the birds sparkle like so many dark ghosts from the past, frozen in their flight. At the same time that Fukase identified with them, they also appear as the stigmata of his unhappiness and his inner isolation.
Exhibited this summer in its entirety in Madrid in the official selection of PhotoEspaña 2024, for the first time in Spain, all of the images are now offered at the Image Documentation Center (CDIS) in Santander, the new festival site.
“Ravens” exhibition by Masahisa Fukase at the Centro de Documentación de la Imagen de Santander (ESP) from 09/12 to 11/2/2024
Information: https://phe.es/exposicion/ravens-%e7%83%8f-2/
https://www.cdis.es/
The publication of Karasu (Ravens) in 1986 by Sokyu-sha was an event in the history of the photo book. All of his images not only perfectly illustrate Fukase’s concerns and his unease, but are the fruit of the artistic development of his identification with crows, intertwined with his existential distress. The famous MACK editions made no mistake in publishing the work in 2017, of great beauty, in its simplicity and darkness. Since out of print, they have just reissued it this spring 2024.
https://mackbooks.co.uk/
Jean-Jacques Ader
