MASAHISA FUKASE - KILL THE PIG

MASAHISA FUKASE
KILL THE PIG

Published by IBASHO & the (M) éditions
Book size 245 x 325 mm
Pages 84
Hardcover in slip case
ISBN-13: 979-10-95424-27-7
Limited edition of 1000 numbered copies
Text by Tomo Kosuga (founder and director of Masahisa Fukase Archives) in Japanese and English (translation by Lucy North)

In 1961 Masahisa Fukase's first solo exhibition Kill the Pig was held in Tokyo. The exhibition consisted of two series of photographs: one titled 'Kill the Pig' and another series titled 'Naked'.

The series 'Kill the Pig' featured photographs set in a slaughterhouse in Shibaura, Tokyo. Huge numbers of ravens also congregated there, drawn by the odor of raw meat, as the air resounded eerily with their cries. The series featured photographs in black and white and in color. The color shots were mostly reserved for the scenes showing blood and death.

The other series exhibited was 'Naked', showing Fukase himself and his partner at the time, Yukiyo Kawakami, in various poses.
There was one photograph in the exhibition that seemed very different from the rest, which was of a dead baby. This work was high-contrast and composed of two prints, one a positive, the other a negative, two black and white images in reverse, displayed adjacently. This baby was Fukase and Yukiyo's first child, who had been still-born. In the exhibition, this work was prominently displayed, in a manner that all the other works arose from them.

It seems that Fukase attempted to express something about the cruelty of the two poles of life: as a positive and a negative. In other words, the idea that death is an essential part of life, and life of death.
This book includes photographs that featured in that exhibition, now assembled as a single volume. With this book and Tomo Kosuga's essay, light is cast on the works in the exhibition, which Kosuga considers to represent Fukase's starting point in his photographic practice, and which for many decades languished in the shadows. (Text based on Kosuga's essay)

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In 1961, Masahisa Fukase's first solo exhibition, Kill the Pig, was held in Tokyo. The exhibition featured two series of photographs: one, titled Kill the Pig and the other, titled Naked.

The Kill the Pig series reveals photographs taken at a slaughterhouse in Shibaura, Tokyo. The series includes black and white photographs and color photographs. The other series on display, Naked, shows images of Fukase himself and of his partner at the time, Yukiyo Kawakami.

One of the photographs in the exhibition, however, stands out from the others. This dead baby is a highly contrasted work that consists of two prints, one positive, the other negative, two inverted black and white images, presented face to face. This stillborn baby is Fukase and Yukiyo's first child. In the exhibition, this work is clearly highlighted, as a point of reference for all the other images.

It seems that Fukase is trying to emphasize, in both positive and negative terms, the cruelty and interconnection between life and death through this image.

This book brings together in a single volume the photographs that appeared in this exhibition. As he explains in his essay, Tomo Kosuga considers these images, which remained in the shadows for many years, as the starting point of Fukase's photographic practice.