Tracking Kikuji Kawada after his photobook, Chizu (The Map).

[Guest Nowhereman]

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Kikuji Kawada's Chizu (The Map), published in 1965, has been a highly influential photobook sometimes cited with Robert Frank's The Americans. Martin Parr has called it  'the ultimate photobook as object'. You can get the sense of the book in this 16-minute video on the making of the book, by Kawada and designer Kohei Sugiura:

The book has a layered structure, with every other double page spread being a gatefold, which forced an active physical effort by the reader. I became interested in The Map a few years ago, as I was interested in making a book with a more complex foldout structure. Just recently, though, I was wondering what Kawada did after Chizu and started by looking at his Instagram feed: @kawada_kikuji. You can also see an article with 50 images from his 2020 The Red and The Black exhibition on this Ricoh blog. 

Kawada's Red and Black exhibition involved heavy processed images, some of which had been strongly colorized, presumably using ColorEfex. That interested me because I have just finished posting on Instagram a "blue series" of 24 images — the blue to give a feeling of distance or memory or dream. You can see the images by starting with my post of 7-October-2021 and proceeding to the last post of the series, dated 22-Oct-2021. In the latter, I asked whether the blue colorization worked well, or whether it would be better for the series to be in black and white. Also, whether people felt ant of the images should be deleted to bring the series down from 24 to 20 images. Of course, this being Instagram, I got no responses.
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Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

[Guest Nowhereman]

Posted 3 days ago, 60 views and one "Thanks". Is there really no interest in Kawada and his book, The Map?
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Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

[frame-it]

nice pics.. i love his b&w shots

Edited November 4, 2021 by frame-it

[Guest Nowhereman]

Sean O'Hagan has recently written an evocative article in The Guardian on Kawada's Chizu (The Map), here. He compares the original edition, which had foldouts, to the recently published edition of Kawada's maquette of the book, which has three volumes, two hardcover ones with the images and a softcover volume of texts.

At the end of the Guardian article there is a link to the publisher's site of the maquette edition (Mack Books), which includes a flipthrough video of the three volumes. Apparently, Kawada has had mixed feelings on whether he prefers the first edition or the maquette.
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Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

[oldwino]

Really excellent video. I have looked at buying this book on numerous occasions, but the intensity of the subject matter has, so far, held my purchase at bay. I think I will buy a copy, even if I don't look at it right away. Thank you for posting this.

Kawada's current photography is equally compelling - he's lost none of his visual verve. 

Regarding Instagram...it is no place for meaningful discussion, being more the equivalent to quickly thumbing through a book and declaring "I've read it". It is, after all, a part of Facebook (Meta?). But you knew all that.  Very occasionally, an image will hold my attention for a bit, prompting further exploration. Not often, but it does happen.

[Guest Nowhereman]

1 hour ago, oldwino said:

...I have looked at buying this book on numerous occasions, but the intensity of the subject matter has, so far, held my purchase at bay. I think I will buy a copy, even if I don't look at it right away...

Do you mean the "normal" edition that was published or the new maquette edition? The normal edition, as far as I could see, runs at around $1,000+. The maquette edition can be bought at about $150 including shipping depending where you buy it from. That is the one I'm might buy.
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Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

[oldwino]

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4 minutes ago, Nowhereman said:

Do you mean the "normal" edition that was published or the new maquette edition? The normal edition, as far as I could see, runs at around $1,000+. The maquette edition can be bought at about $150 including shipping depending where you buy it from. That is the one I'm might buy.
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Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

The maquette edition. I've seen a reprint of the original offered from Japan for about $500. Signed, even. 

[pippy]

Fascinating story and thought-provoking video.

I, like a few others, only chanced upon your OP byway of the mention it was given in a post in Barnack's Bar. I'm not sure how the situation might be better addressed. A 'Light-hearted' Bar and a 'More Serious-minded Bar'? I like both silly and intriguing in almost equal measure but it's a crying shame (IMO) that stupid Click-Bait receives more interest in a Photographic Forum than does wonderful Photography.

Thank-you very much for posting, Nowhereman.

Philip.

[Guest Nowhereman]

In searching for Kikuji Kawada's exhibitions since his early work on Chizu (The Map), I came across the PGI Gallery (Tokyo) whose website is available both in Japanese and in English. On the site you can explore a range of Japanese photographers (see Artists) and exhibitions (see Exhibitions). If you have thoughts on any of these, please let us know.

The Kikuji Kawada page lists 12 exhibitions, whose contents can be seen by clicking on the respective thumbnail images: then, by clicking on one of the individual photos, you can see a slideshow of the exhibition, and get an idea of the range of his work.
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Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

[oldwino]

Wow, what a terrific resource! You could get lost for days in there!

[AndreasG]

Very impressive in deed, thank you for the links and information!