SHOMEI TOMATSU - TOKYO MANDALA: THE WORLD OF SHOMEI TOMATSU

SHOMEI TOMATSU
TOKYO MANDALA: The World of Shomei Tomatsu

Published by Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2007
Book size 30 x 22 cm
Pages 191 pages
Softcover
Language Japanese and English
Good condition - corners of the book lightly damaged

Tokyo Mandala: The World of Shomei Tomatsu is a catalog of Shomei Tomatsu's retrospective exhibition held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2007. Photojournalistic images vary from people to landscapes and further to abstract views. Tomatsu is mostly known for his atomic bomb images of Nagasaki but as well for his postwar documentation representing Japan from his perspective, with his own words the true Japan.

"Each of the Mandala series consists of photographs I have selected after careful review of all the film I have shot in the regions of Japan where I have photographed extensively. The most extraordinarily difficult part of that process was selecting the photographs for Tokyo mandala. Having made the Tokyo area my base for about 40 years, from my 20s to my 60s, I was faced with a daunting problem of scale. The Tokyo area is huge, I have worked there for four decades, and thus had an overwhelmingly large. number of photographs from which I had to make a selection.”, artist's forewords.

Tomatsu was born in 1930 in Aichi and moved to Tokyo after his graduation. His work has been presented in Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography as well as in USA and in Europe. The photographer's main interests varied from military bases to nature, manners and customs.

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Tokyo Mandala: The World of Shomei Tomatsu is a catalogue of Shomei Tomatsu's retrospective exhibition held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2007. The photojournalistic images range from people to landscapes and abstract views. Tomatsu is best known for his images of the atomic bombs of Nagasaki, but also for his post-war documentation depicting Japan from his perspective, in his own words the real Japan.

“Each of the Mandala series consists of photographs that I selected after careful consideration of all the films I have shot in the regions of Japan where I have photographed extensively. The most extraordinarily difficult part of this process was selecting the photographs for the Tokyo mandala. Having made the Tokyo region my base for about 40 years, from my twenties to my sixties, I was faced with a formidable problem of scale. The Tokyo region is huge, I have been working there for four decades, and so I had an inordinate number of photographs from which to select.”, the artist’s epilogue.

Tomatsu was born in 1930 in Aichi and moved to Tokyo after graduation. His work has been exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography as well as in the United States and Europe. The photographer's main interests ranged from military bases to nature, manners and customs.