[Exhibition of Japanese Photography: Catalog]. Vystavka Iaponskoi Fotografii: Katalog.

Compiled by B. Bykov.

[Rostov-on-Don], Rostov-on-Don salon of photography, 1989.
8vo, [32] pp., ill.

In original pictorial wrappers. Issued without title.
In good condition, light rubbing and soling to wrappers.

The first Russian exhibition catalog dedicated to Japanese photography. Rare provincial edition.

In contrast to Japanese woodcuts and paintings, which were more thoroughly studied by Soviet art critics and historians, Japanese photography remained largely unknown to the general public throughout the Soviet period. The only source that regularly published material about Japanese photography was the magazine ‘Sovetskoe Foto’ (‘Soviet Photo’), which featured nearly 40 pieces from 1928 to 1993, including articles on camera technologies, mentions of photographers, individual photographs, and brief interviews. The sole article dedicated entirely to Japanese photography was a translated piece titled ‘The First Photographers in Japan’, published in 1970, and it underscored the absence of specialists in Japanese photography within the USSR.The situation was no better for exhibitions. In 1929, the newspaper ‘Asahi’ sent photographs to the USSR for an exhibition, but they ultimately were not displayed. After World War II, Japanese photographers participated in various international exhibitions organized in the USSR and thematic exhibitions about Japan that included Japanese photography as part of a larger collection. Only two exhibitions focused exclusively on Japanese photography: the 1958 exhibition ‘Japan in Photographs’ and the 1989 exhibition in Rostov-on-Don. Notably, the latter was the only exhibition for which a catalog was published.
The 1989 exhibition showcased works by 20 photographers from the Tokyo photo club 'Arc-en-Ciel', led by Nakai Masami (中居正躬; 1904–?), a member of the Royal Photographic Society and an honorary member of FIAP. From 1966 to 1984, Nakai served as a lecturer on color photography theory and specialized techniques at the Japan College of Photography. The exhibition catalog features reproductions of photographs (one from each photographer, accompanied by their portrait) and concludes with a list of all the exhibited works, totaling 134 pieces. Techniques such as posterization, solarization, and montage were employed in the works.

We couldn’t trace any copy of this catalog via OCLC.