Author: Masahisa Fukase
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Genre: Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
Release: Jan 1991 My Rating: 0
Summary: If you're reading this on Amazon, you've probably read or heard about the great rare 1986 hardcover book Karasu (Ravens) in Japanese and English by Masahisa Fukase that costs several thousand dollars, and you're probably wondering if it's worth shelling out several hundred dollars for this 1991 out-of-print paperback reprint in English.* The short answer is "Yes, But You Should Ignore the Words 'The Solitude Of' in the Title."
A longer answer follows. The 1986 first edition in Japanese and English is mentioned in books on Amazon such as these: Photography Now by Mark Haworth-Booth (1989) , Beyond Japan: A Photo Theatre by Mark Holborn (1991) , The Photobook: A History, Vol. 1 by Parr & Badger (2004) , and Setting Sun: Writings By Japanese Photographers by Ivan Vartanian (2005) . It is also mentioned in articles such as "Ravens tops all photobooks in BJP poll" and "Masahisa Fukase - 350MC Research notes."
Comparing the 1986 and 1991 editions, you would find that the odd-numbered pages between 3 and 125 with 62 black-and-white photographs are virtually identical. The page size is about 10x10 inches. All the photos except the last one are printed full bleed to the right edge with 1.5" white borders at top and bottom; the last photo, showing the back of a man in a city street, has 2.5"-3" white margins all around. The quality of the paper and of the printing is quite similar (see Customer Image). I would characterize all the differences between the 1986 and 1991 editions as either unrelated to the photos or as minor.**
Nevertheless, there is one important difference related to the photos between 1986 and 1991: the title. The addition of the three words "The Solitude Of" in 1991, probably due to the afterword by Akira Hasegawa which mentions "solitude" several times, gives the impression that the book should be interpreted in a certain way. But I agree with a 2009 paper, " 'Becoming a Raven': Self-Representation, Narration, and Metaphor in Fukase Masahisa's 'Karasu' Photographs" by Philip Charrier, that claims that the series of photos is "more than a creative expression of the pain of lost love, or a symbolic representation of the experience of loneliness or sorrow." Instead, the book has multiple potential meanings. For example, one might feel that it contemplates humankind's relationship with nature. The blurry images on pages 17-27 might show what a raven might see while flying; the single dead ravens on pages 37, 41, and 49 might represent a normal part of life; the gulls and cormorants on pages 21, 31, and 93 might symbolize natural competition; and the smokestacks on pages 57-61 and trash on pages 121-125 might allude to humans' destruction of the environment. The original title "Ravens" leaves more to the imagination and should have been used in this reprint as well. Buy this from Amazon.com sellers!
* I have not seen the out-of-print hardcover 2008 reprint by Tokyo's Rat Hole Gallery entitled "The Solitude Of Ravens" whose price on the secondary market is between the 1986 and 1991 versions, but the photographs inside look similar to the 1986 and 1991 versions based on another site's "BookTease" function.
** Although the 1986 copy I examined lacked the cardboard slipcase, glassine dust jacket, and caption page described elsewhere on the Web, here are the differences I detected between the 1986 and 1991 books themselves: (a) The front cover illustration is a single raven (like the photo on page 3) that is debossed on black background in 1986, but a flock of ravens in the sky (crop of photo on page 9) with title & author at bottom in 1991. (b) The back cover shows a debossed raven in 1986, but is solid black with ISBN in 1991. (c) The spine has debossed barely-legible text in 1986, but white-on-black English text in 1991. (d) The paperback's flaps with "blurbs" are present only in 1991. (e) The pastedown endpapers are black in 1986, but the inside covers are grey in 1991. (f) The flyleaves (free end papers) are black in 1986, but absent in 1991. (g) All text (e.g., on the title page) is given in Japanese and English in 1986, but in English only in 1991. (h) The pages facing the photos have no numbers and are white, except for what would be page 2 being black and would be page 124 being grey in 1986 and 1991, and what would be page 122 being black in 1991 only. (i) An "introductory note" by David Travis entitled "Fukase's Face and Photographs" is present on pages 127-128 of 1991 only. (j) An afterword by Akira Hasegawa is found on pages 127-130 of 1986 in Japanese and English, but on pages 129-130 of 1991 in English only. (k) The final unnumbered page of 1986 gives only publication info, but the final page of 1991 gives publication info as well as the location and year of each photograph.
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Genre: Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
Release: Jan 1991 My Rating: 0
Summary: If you're reading this on Amazon, you've probably read or heard about the great rare 1986 hardcover book Karasu (Ravens) in Japanese and English by Masahisa Fukase that costs several thousand dollars, and you're probably wondering if it's worth shelling out several hundred dollars for this 1991 out-of-print paperback reprint in English.* The short answer is "Yes, But You Should Ignore the Words 'The Solitude Of' in the Title."
A longer answer follows. The 1986 first edition in Japanese and English is mentioned in books on Amazon such as these: Photography Now by Mark Haworth-Booth (1989) , Beyond Japan: A Photo Theatre by Mark Holborn (1991) , The Photobook: A History, Vol. 1 by Parr & Badger (2004) , and Setting Sun: Writings By Japanese Photographers by Ivan Vartanian (2005) . It is also mentioned in articles such as "Ravens tops all photobooks in BJP poll" and "Masahisa Fukase - 350MC Research notes."
Comparing the 1986 and 1991 editions, you would find that the odd-numbered pages between 3 and 125 with 62 black-and-white photographs are virtually identical. The page size is about 10x10 inches. All the photos except the last one are printed full bleed to the right edge with 1.5" white borders at top and bottom; the last photo, showing the back of a man in a city street, has 2.5"-3" white margins all around. The quality of the paper and of the printing is quite similar (see Customer Image). I would characterize all the differences between the 1986 and 1991 editions as either unrelated to the photos or as minor.**
Nevertheless, there is one important difference related to the photos between 1986 and 1991: the title. The addition of the three words "The Solitude Of" in 1991, probably due to the afterword by Akira Hasegawa which mentions "solitude" several times, gives the impression that the book should be interpreted in a certain way. But I agree with a 2009 paper, " 'Becoming a Raven': Self-Representation, Narration, and Metaphor in Fukase Masahisa's 'Karasu' Photographs" by Philip Charrier, that claims that the series of photos is "more than a creative expression of the pain of lost love, or a symbolic representation of the experience of loneliness or sorrow." Instead, the book has multiple potential meanings. For example, one might feel that it contemplates humankind's relationship with nature. The blurry images on pages 17-27 might show what a raven might see while flying; the single dead ravens on pages 37, 41, and 49 might represent a normal part of life; the gulls and cormorants on pages 21, 31, and 93 might symbolize natural competition; and the smokestacks on pages 57-61 and trash on pages 121-125 might allude to humans' destruction of the environment. The original title "Ravens" leaves more to the imagination and should have been used in this reprint as well. Buy this from Amazon.com sellers!
* I have not seen the out-of-print hardcover 2008 reprint by Tokyo's Rat Hole Gallery entitled "The Solitude Of Ravens" whose price on the secondary market is between the 1986 and 1991 versions, but the photographs inside look similar to the 1986 and 1991 versions based on another site's "BookTease" function.
** Although the 1986 copy I examined lacked the cardboard slipcase, glassine dust jacket, and caption page described elsewhere on the Web, here are the differences I detected between the 1986 and 1991 books themselves: (a) The front cover illustration is a single raven (like the photo on page 3) that is debossed on black background in 1986, but a flock of ravens in the sky (crop of photo on page 9) with title & author at bottom in 1991. (b) The back cover shows a debossed raven in 1986, but is solid black with ISBN in 1991. (c) The spine has debossed barely-legible text in 1986, but white-on-black English text in 1991. (d) The paperback's flaps with "blurbs" are present only in 1991. (e) The pastedown endpapers are black in 1986, but the inside covers are grey in 1991. (f) The flyleaves (free end papers) are black in 1986, but absent in 1991. (g) All text (e.g., on the title page) is given in Japanese and English in 1986, but in English only in 1991. (h) The pages facing the photos have no numbers and are white, except for what would be page 2 being black and would be page 124 being grey in 1986 and 1991, and what would be page 122 being black in 1991 only. (i) An "introductory note" by David Travis entitled "Fukase's Face and Photographs" is present on pages 127-128 of 1991 only. (j) An afterword by Akira Hasegawa is found on pages 127-130 of 1986 in Japanese and English, but on pages 129-130 of 1991 in English only. (k) The final unnumbered page of 1986 gives only publication info, but the final page of 1991 gives publication info as well as the location and year of each photograph.