Hosoe, Embrace

Hosoe, Eiko. Hoyo. Embrace. Preface by Yukio Mishima. Tokyo, Shashin hyoronsha 1971. Folio (36,5 x 26,5 cm.). [92] S. mit 60 teils doppelblattgr. Tafeln u. 1 gefalt. Bl. (Bilderverzeichnis). Orig.-Leinenband mit Schutzumschlag und Bauchbinde (″Obi“, Bellyband, Bande announce) in bedr. Pappschuber.

Bertolotti 160 f. – Erste Ausgabe. – 10 Jahre nach Otoko to onna (Man and Woman), wie dieses und Kamaitachi in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Tänzer Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986, Coreograph des „Butoh“) entstanden. – „Ten years later, Hosoe concluded his research by creating the outstanding series of nudes put together in Embrace (1971), a superbly printed volume presented in a cardboard casing. In Man and Woman, the symbolic representation of the relationship between Adam and Eve was still conditioned by traditional thinking; to be convinced of this one need only think of the image of the man offering the apple to the women, a fairly naive lterary attempt to reverse the myth. In Embrace, however, the photographer treats the subject with an incomparably suberior freedom of expression. The figure of the male body next to that of the female no longer needs an explanation; it is a reality. The images of intertwined bodies, or of the woman’s buttocks pressed against the man’s muscular, threatening arms, represents the essence of life. All these images in no apparent order only take on a meaning if they are put together, one after the other; in isolation they lose their function. This is why the photography book is so important to the artist; arranged in a book, the photographs give the sense of a completed idea, a finished project, whereas shown separately and in isolation – for instance, in an exhibition – they lose their meaning“ (A. Bertolotti). – „Despite its intensely Japanese qualities, the style, dramatic and retorical, focuses on the human body in a way amien to the Japanese, where there was no tradition of the nude in an abstact sense, only nakedness“ (Parr/Badger I, 279 zu Otoko to Onna). – Der Schuber gering bestoßen, braunfleckig und gebräunt, Bauchbinde etwas fleckig und mit geringfügigen Randläsuren, sonst sehr gut erhalten. – Slipcase slightly bumped, brownstained and browned, belly band somewhat stained and with minor edge wear, otherwise in very good condition.