MAN and WOMAN - Eikoh Hosoe

In 1961, "Man and Woman" was published by Camera Art (text: Tatsuo Fukushima, Ed van der Elsken, Poetry: Taro Yamamoto). The title of this book seems very suggestive: man was written in hiragana (traditional Japanese writing) and woman in Kanji (Chinese character). Man sounds sexually powerful and positive, subjective, primitive and woman seems sensuous, objective, rational. Hosoe asked his friend, Tatsumi Hijikata to be a male model of this book. They had been friends since Hosoe observed Hijikata's stage, "Kinjiki" in 1959. (Kinjiki was based on the novel written by Yukio Mishima).

"Man and Woman" showed a man and woman in the very dark background and it was made as if he creatively captured each movement at the stage.. His photography is all black and white and main figures are just a man and woman. The plots are pretty simple, although it certainly remains strong in one's hearts and eyes. To move one's feelings, artist's pure and strong passion must be more important than any technical sophistication and complication or radical use of images.

signed copy available 

first edition

stock number: AB067