なぜ、植物図鑑か―中平卓馬映像論集

by Takuma Nakahira, 中平卓馬

写真にとって表現とは何か、記録とは何か。1960年代後半から70年代にかけて、ラディカルな思考と実践を貫きながら激動の時代を駆け抜けた写真家が、自身の作品と方法の徹底的な総括を通して、来るべき時代の表現を模索する写真+映像論集。写真は「事物が事物であることを明確化することだけで成立する」ものでなければならないとし、“ブレ・ボケ”との訣別を宣言する表題作「なぜ、植物図鑑か」ほか、メディア社会における“芸術と政治”への先験的考察は、今も伝説的に語り継がれる。原著刊行から30年余を経て待望の文庫化。

Genres: Photography

308 pages, 文庫

Published October 1, 2007

About the author

Takuma Nakahira was a Japanese photographer and photography critic.

While working as an editor at the art magazine Today's Focus (Gendai no me), Nakahira published his work under the name of Aki Yuzuki. Up through the publication of the phonebook For a Language to Come (Kitarubeki kotoba no tame ni) in 1970, Nakahira had been well versed in a style in the vein of Daido Moriyama's Are, bure, boke (rough, blurred, and out of focus). In 1973, he published Why an Illustrated Botanical Dictionary (Naze, shokubutsu zukan ka), shifting away from the style of Are, bure, boke and instead moving towards a type of catalog photography stripped of the sentimentality of handheld, or a photography resembling the illustrations of reference books.

Reviews

[Elisefur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fierce, grumpy and at times mad, Takuma Nakahira was a true thinker and his aesthetic criticism is still relevant today, though not for everyone. As an artist he had this amazing political awareness and understanding based on practice. The struggle is real and the resistance to the omnipresent capitalism is tough but his insights are worthwhile.

[scrapespaghetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manufactured life. & scenery.
Photo became monumental from documentational.