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Kawauchi, Rinko : Rinko Kawauchi: The River Embraced Me

Torch Press, Tokyo, Japan, 2016

ISBN 4907562047

First Edition / First Printing. As New in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 80 pages. Retrospective collection of color photographs, presented as an Artist Book. One of the most beautiful art photography books of our time. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. A brilliant production by Rinko Kawauchi: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial hard boards with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs and Poem by Rinko Kawauchi. Text in both the Japanese original and felicitous English translation on a separate booklet and laid into the book. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Japan to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Published on the occasion of the exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kumamoto, one of the oldest and historically most important Japanese cities. Presents Rinko Kawauchi's "The River Embraced Me". A few images now identified with Kawauchi interspersed with all-new photographs of Kumamoto. As such, the exhibition is site-specific: Founded in the 16th century, Kumamoto still stands proud today, vibrant and modern, with its very own museum for contemporary art (the proper venue for an artist like Kawauchi) rising amidst the splendor of its historic past. For Kawauchi, photography = memory/memory = photography. "Unifies people's memories with photography. Features new work shot across forty different locations, all inspired by memories of the people of Kumamoto. By capturing the backdrop of these recollections, the experience brings life to memory, and as such allows the viewer to feel the budding of memories of their own" (Publisher's blurb). Like other Japanese artist/photographers, Kawauchi's idea of memory is refined: She captures Kumamoto, the "backdrop" awash with the memories of its people, through her landscape photographs (there isn't a single portrait of a specific person in Kawauchi's oeuvre). If they are any good (and they are), her photographs will trigger memories in other people, Japanese and foreigner alike, who see, look at, and pay attention to them. Photography-as-memory is THE prevailing, post-modern view of the medium, as evidenced by Instagram and articulated before that global phenomenon by no less than the most influential philosopher/theorist of our time, Derrida, who regards photography as the indispensable part of humanity's necessary "memory-work". Kawauchi brings her poetic sensibility and impeccable artistry to "memory-work", and in a way that is quite different from her Western counterparts. She emphasizes the concrete-ness of the moment, not its nostalgic effect: Each moment, heightened ("frozen") by its photograph, renews our sense of being alive in the present. Kawauchi's photographs matter because they resonate with us, in their hushed beauty and genuine, feminine power. An absolute "must-have" title for Rinko Kawauchi collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black pen-marker (in Japanese characters) on the front free endpaper by Rinko Kawauchi. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title will become a contemporary art photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies of her other books available online, most of them not signed, command between $750 and $2500. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with color plates. Rinko Kawauchi's "Utatane" was selected as one of the greatest photography books in "The Photobook". One of the most brilliant artist/photographers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER RINKO KAWAUCHI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 4907562047.

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