11:02 NAGASAKI, SIGNED BY SHOMEI TOMATSU, WITH 119 BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES

TOMATSU, Shomei. 11:02 Nagasaki. (Tokyo: Shashin Dojinsha, 1966). Square octavo, original white paper boards. $1500.

First edition of this important look at Nagasaki, signed by Tomatsu on the title page, with 119 black-and-white photogravure plates depicting the effect of the atom bomb.

This is the first photobook by Tomatsu, a founding member of the avant-garde photographers’ group Vivo and the leading figure in a generation of “angry young men who sought to take photography to the absolute limits” (Parr & Badger, 271). In 1960, the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs asked Tomatsu to take photos of Nagasaki and the bomb’s aftereffects. Titled after the time of the bomb’s explosion, this work has had great influence on the development of Japanese photography. The “ultra-fine sensitivity towards the subject and the deep sense of detachment which is to be found in these photographs may, perhaps, be considered as the culmination of modern Japanese photography that had first appeared in the 1930s. In particular, an approach which consisted of transforming everyday subjects into powerful symbolic images was brought to perfection by Tomatsu. His photographs provide a powerful incentive to confront social reality, and his consistent openness towards others, through the medium of photography, means that he exercised a great influence on young photographers” (Frizot, 691). The text by Motoi Tamaki and interviews with survivors is in Japanese. Without original slipcase. Open Book, 226. Parr & Badger, 276.

Images clean and bright, minor restoration to title page where owner’s name was excised. An excellent copy.