Culture

Takuma Nakahira Exhibition Honors the Japanese Photographer's Life and Work

The life and photographic career of Takuma Nakahira (1938-2015) is the subject of an exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art. On through Apil 7.

Published

2 months ago

March 13, 2024

Paul de Vries

'Nakahira Takuma: BurnーOverflow' exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, is holding a retrospective exhibition of Japanese photographer, critic, and theorist Takuma Nakahira. Titled Nakahira Takuma: Burn—Overflow, it runs until April 7. Nakahira (1938-2015) was one of the most prominent Japanese photographers of the 1960s and 1970s.

"Burn," within the exhibition title, refers to "fire," a recurring motif in Nakahira's photographic work. He also used the word repeatedly in his writing as a symbolic term. "Overflow" evokes the water and liquid substances that flowed out onto the streets that were Nakahira's primary subject matter. It further refers to the flood of images in the media and mass consumption to be found in modern society.

Overflow - water and liquid substances that flowed out onto the streets. Nakahira Takuma, From overflow, 1971, chromogenic print, 42.0x29.0cm Collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. (©Gen Nakahira)

The 'Provoke' Years

Nakahira worked in the editorial department of a monthly magazine before entering photography. He is best known for co-founding the small-press Japanese photography magazine Provoke in 1968. Although it only ran for three issues, Provoke is credited with having a profound effect on Japanese photography.

The Provoke manifesto declared that "words have lost their material base" and "seem suspended in mid-air." A photographer's eye, however, "can capture fragments" of the "reality that cannot be expressed in language as it is. He can submit those images as documents to be considered alongside language and ideology."

*The third and final issue of Provoke. 'Nakahira Takuma: BurnーOverflow' exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo*.

Provoke's photos were generally shot at night. Their visual style was famously said to be "are-bure-boke," typically translated as "grainy-rough-blurry." Color photography of cities at night is typically characterized by colorful lights. The resulting images are fundamentally attractive. In depicting less attractive images, are-bure-boke was a style that naturally lent itself to black-and-white photography.

*A grainy, rough, blurry depiction of 1960s Tokyo. Image from the pages of Provoke. 'Nakahira Takuma: BurnーOverflow' exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo*.

*Urban street scene from the pages of Provoke. Image from the pages of Provoke. 'Nakahira Takuma: BurnーOverflow' exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.*

The Black-and-White Photography of the Analog era

Born in 1938, Nakahira came of age during the 1950s and 60s, a time of destruction and renewal. War and occupation had given way to political and social turmoil. The city of Tokyo was a giant, dusty construction site.

Photography at that time was analog rather than digital. Photographers spent long evenings in dark rooms, accompanied by enlargers, negatives, and trays of liquid developer. Digitization and computer effects were still a generation away.

Black-and-white photography was the option of necessity for the up-and-coming photographer. It was significantly cheaper than the color alternative and considerably more forgiving. Color photos required a dark room that kept out all light. One could create a dark room adequate for black-and-white by taping sheets of black plastic over windows. A slight degree of outside exposure was permissible.

Discrepancies in cost between publications that included color images, and those limited to black and white, were even greater. Color reproduction would never have been an option for the pages of publications with a limited budget, such as Provoke.

The photographs contained within Provoke depict raw energy. That publication, limited as it was in the duration of its existence (or even perhaps because of it), seems something of a perfect storm. It is a snapshot of those turbulent times, captured in grainy black and white, the standard photographic medium of the era.

Course Reversal, Memory Loss

The exhibition then features Nakahira's exhibit at the 1971 Paris Bienelle, titled: Circulation: Date, Place, Event. Nakahira believed that photography of urban landscapes supported a political and economic dynamic that alienated individual lives. He therefore compiled his exhibit during the Bienelle itself by photographing the reality he saw daily on the Paris streets.

Exhibit titled, Circulation - Date, Place, Event, at the 1971 Paris Bienelle Nakahira Takuma, From Circulation - Date, Place, Event, 1971, gelatin silver print, 32.0x48.0cm Collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. (©Gen Nakahira)

In 1973, Nakahira reversed course. He self-criticized his previous stance in a collection of essays titled, Why an Illustrated Botanical Dictionary? Embracing the depiction of reality and capturing the world as it is, he began shooting in focus and color. This led to an exhibit titled Overflow, a large set of 48 prints, in 1974.

Establishing an International Presence

Exhibit titled Overflow, 148 color photographs presented in the 1974 Fifteen Photographers Today exhibition. Nakahira Takuma, overflow, 1974. 48 chromogenic prints, 42.0x29.0cm each. 'Nakahira Takuma: BurnーOverflow' exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Participation in various international exhibitions followed, as did a deep interest by Nakahira in the Okinawa islands. In 1977, however, he suffered a severe bout of alcohol poisoning that led to a coma and significant memory loss.

After recuperating, he continued to take photographs until late in life, capturing fragments of the world in predominantly vertical compositions. He published several photo books and continued to be exhibited. In 2003, the Yokohama Museum of Art held a large solo exhibition, Nakahira Takuma: Degree Zero—Yokohama. Interest in his work and life has only increased following his death in 2015.

The career of Nakahira Takuma is bisected by his medical emergency. His post-coma work lacks the impact of the are-bure-boke era of the Provoke magazine. Curators and art critics debate his post-coma output. They argue over whether or not it should be viewed as a continuation of his earlier work or a definitive departure.

The Photo Book as a Work of Art

Nakahira Takuma: Burn—Overflow is particularly notable for the respect with which it treats photo books and magazines. Books of photo compilations were hugely popular among photographers in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Asahi Camera, in particular, was ubiquitous on the counters of photography stores.

Typically, people view printed publications as archival materials rather than works of art. This exhibition uncommonly places equal weight on both printed publications and photographs printed on photographic paper.

*The journal or magazine as a piece of art. 'Nakahira Takuma: BurnーOverflow' exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo*.

The curators deal with the challenge of comprehensively displaying the content of Provoke through a page-by-page video presentation of the three volumes. It was an effective solution and a highlight of the exhibition.

Nakahira Takuma: Burn—Overflow is more than just a retrospective of a highly influential photographer. It provides a time capsule of Tokyo's political, cultural, and developmental progression in the 1960s and 70s. Furthermore, it allows younger viewers to more fully appreciate the analog photographic era in terms of image capture. Additionally, it teaches them about the wide use of cost-effective black-and-white photography and the dissemination of images through photographic journals. It is well worth visiting.