Masahisa Fukase turns in 1977 his lens towards his new companion: his cat Sasuke. Surrounded by felines since his childhood, Fukase decides with the arrival of this new kitten to make him a photographic subject in his own right. He takes it everywhere with him and, in a long-term almost experimental form, explores a new practice: “That year I took a lot of pictures crawling on my stomach to be at eye level of a cat and, in a way, that made me a cat.
It was a job full of joy, taking these photos playing with what I liked, in accordance with the changes of nature.” Taking advantage of this model full of life, Fukase created as usual an extraordinary photograph in its technical and visual inventiveness. A year later, he welcomes a second cat, nicknamed Momoe, who will also enter the frame: “I didn’t want to photograph the most beautiful cats in the world but rather capture their charm in my lens, while reflecting me in their pupils.
Dimensions: 12 x 10 Inches
Medium: Archival pigment print on 314gsm Epson Legacy Platine fine art paper
Provenance: Officially licensed by artist and publisher. Publishing information on back of print. Comes with gallery Certificate of Authenticity.
Edition: Limited Timed Edition of unknown edition size
Year: 1977 (created) 2024 (printed)
Condition: Excellent
ARTIST BIO
A legend and an enigma in his native Japan, postwar photographer Masahisa Fukase produced a body of work whose dark expressionism reflects the artistic reaction to a country ravaged by defeat. He began showing his photographs in the 1960s, focusing on industrial scenes. By the early 1970s, he turned to the tender subject of his wife, gaining critical and commercial success. In 1974, together with contemporaries including Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama, he established a photography school, The Workshop, which propagated the grainy, raw style they pioneered. That same year, his work was included in “New Japanese Photography,” a groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. By the late 1970s, bereft after the dissolution of his marriage, Fukase began photographing ravens, their inky-black bodies serving as ciphers for the pain and loneliness by which he was plagued.