Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"The photographs as "ruins" and the "ruins" in the photographs overlap and when the newly emanated feeling for time is marked into the center of the photographs, the ruins are not the carcasses of destruction and devastation, but turn away from being coffins, symbols of death, and move the hub to the mysterious stage of life."--Shunji Ito Black Sun is an unprecedented portrait of postwar Japan through the eyes of four of the nation's most significant photographers. It encompasses and connects ancient Japanese prophecies, the terror of nuclear destruction, and the results of swift and massive westernization. Eikoh Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Masahisa Fukase, and Daido Moriyama are widely acknowledged in Japan as masters of photography. Their work ranges from the metaphoric to the documentary, from the presentation of post-apocalyptic artifacts to portraits of crows and crowded city streets. However varied the approach, this work is unified by a sense of innovation and a persistent search for native roots. Eikoh Hosoe's representation of the demonic myth Kamaitachi is structured like a dance, enacted among the villagers of the far north country and evoking Hosoe's childhood memories of the final years of World War II. Shomei Tomatsu's work ranges from the legacy of Nagasaki to the student riots of the sixties. His photographs combine social documentary with a search for personal identity, a quest which concludes among the remote islanders of Okinawa. Masahisa Fukase's epic series Crow adopts the universal symbol of the black bird as evil omen. The crow's somber presence shadows Fukase's journey to his birthplace on the northern island of Hokkaido, fusing private memories to a darker, national heritage. Daido Moriyama uncovers the malice lurking in the alleys and backstreets of Tokyo. With his confrontational, highly graphic style, Moriyama reveals the overpowering density of life in modern Japan. In the accompanying text, Mark Holborn creates his own picture of Japan's creative climate, one in which audacious exploration crashes against a legacy of tradition and refinement. He s20provides previously undocumented links between the photographers and other leading Japanese artists of our time, such as filmmaker Nagisa Oshima, graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo, and dancer Tatsumi Hijikata. Ultimately, the dark lyricism of Black Sun serves as both cultural introduction and global prophecy. The shadow cast by these four photographers stretches beyond the shores of Japan and across the entire length of contemporary experience.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

High-quality illustrations provide a showcase for the divergent styles of four contemporary photographers, to accompany a traveling exhibition of their work. Eikoe Hosoe's images cine matically present a dancer acting out a demon myth in villages and rice fields. Shomei Tomatsu documents the effects of the 1945 Nagasaki atomic bomb ex plosion in shocking artistic composi tions. In Masahisa Fukase's pictures, crows inhabit the images of the volca nic Imami Islands. Daido Moriyama presents shadowy close-up and still-life abstractions from an urban environ ment. Each photographer's work is ac companied by an essay about the artist. Holborn's essays provide a very brief history of Japanese photography in the context of 20th century photographic aesthetics, tracing the roots of a style that evinces Japan's ``terrible yet fertile experience.'' Recommended. Kath leen Collins, Library of Congress (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

This thoughtfully designed volume examines the historical and cultural context of post-Hiroshima Japan as it influenced the stylistic and professional development of four prominent Japanese photographers: Eikoh Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Masahisa Fukase, and Daido Moriyama. Although the historical section is separate from the biographies, Holborn has treated the issue of an individual's search for meaning in life through religion, politics, and, most importantly, the medium of photography, as integral to the larger framework of identifying a distinct Japanese vision. The author has brought a freshness to the sociobiographical approach to photographic history. Because of the book's depth of context, this photographic book is an important and excellent companion to New Japanese Photography, ed. by John Szarkowski and S. Yamagishi (CH, Dec '74). The selected portfolios are well reproduced and designed to enhance their psychological impact. The images represent aspects of each photographer's personal journey and are thus suitable for upper-level students of photojournalism as well as fine arts photography; in addition, the text has historiographic value.-J. Bloom, Academy of Art College