Kishi no Machi [A Town Already Seen]. Photographs by Kanendo Watanabe. Text by Mieko Kanai (in Japanese). Shinchosha, Tokyo, 1980. 152 pp. Octavo (small size). Photo-illustrated wrappers in glossy dust jacket. Copperplate black-and-white reproductions . Matching slipcase with printed obi [belly band].
Reminiscent of the austere, minimalist style of New Topographics photographers (Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, Joe Deal, etc..)-- but with atmospherics that are distinctly Surreal. As Vartanian and Kaneko describe in Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 1970s, Mieko Kanai's opening text is typical of the "i-novel" genre, in which narrative is based on the everyday life of the writer. But is also "very close in feel to Andre Breton's 1928 surrealist novel, Nadja...[the images] [evoke] the feeling of being lost in an unfamiliar town." Winner of the 1981 Ihei Kimura Prize. Only one copy in OCLC--in Japan.
Fine- in Near Fine- case; jacket very lightly rubbed; very faint spine crease; case with a trace of rubbing and two 1" splits to openings. |
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