Ravens and Red Lipstick: Japanese Photography since 1945

by Lena Fritsch

This rich volume provides one of the first overviews of Japanese photography to be published in English. Drawing on extensive research, Lena Fritsch traces the development of Japanese photography chronologically, from the severity of post-war Realism to the diverse ingenuity of photography in contemporary Japan. Interspersed are fascinating original interviews with some of the most influential photographers of each era, including Daido Moriyama.


Ravens and Red Lipstick offers a visually bold survey of Japanese photography’s recent history. Fritsch masterfully frames each movement with their business, education, and art-institutional backdrops—she shows the consumerism and intense political debates of 1960s and ’70s Japan, for example, to be central to the rough style of the “Provoke” artists. Fritsch’s great achievement is to bring observations from a range of disciplines to bear on her commentary with imagination and clarity. As a result, this comprehensively illustrated volume is both an accessible introduction and an illuminating work of analysis of Japanese photography since 1945. 

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Japan, Art, History

288 pages, Softcover

Published November 13, 2018

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dissertation would not be without this book.

[E. G.]

Introduction

--I. Post-War Trauma
--II. The Image Generation
--III. New Photographic Freedom
--IV. Girls' Photography
--V. Contemporary Japanese Photography

Timeline: Photography in Japan
Interviewees' Biographies
Endnotes
Further Reading
Picture List
Acknowledgments
Index