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This bundle of four photobooks, published by MEM Gallery, offers an invaluable look at Japanese photographers who have impacted Japanese photography history between the 1930s and 2010s.

MEM was founded in Osaka in 1997 as a gallery to introduce Kansai photographers from the 1980s as well as young artists active today, hosting exhibitions by veterans as well as newcomers. The gallery relocated to Ebisu in Tokyo in 2010 and continues hosting a wide range of exhibitions featuring photography, painting, sculpture and video works. The gallery also made it its mission to rediscover influential photography artists active in the Kansai region from the 1930s through the postwar years.

Books included in this bundle:

Noboru Ueki & Yūshi Kobayashi of the K.P.S. (Kyoto Photography Society)
74 pages, 28 images, 2019

This book focuses on the works of Noboru Ueki & Yūshi Kobayashi, two representative artists of the photographic group K.P.S (Kyoto Photography Society), established in 1925. Featuring photographs and original texts by both artists, an essay by art historian Ryuichi Kaneko as well as biographic overviews (all available in Japanese and English translation).

The Naniwa Photography Club in the Post-war Period: Regarding Yoho Tsuda, Shosuke Sekioka & Heihachiro Sakai
60 pages, 27 images, 2018

The Naniwa Photography Club, founded in 1904 in Osaka, is Japan’s oldest surviving amateur photographers’ organization, with many important contributions to Japan’s photographic history. The club suffered during the war, and was revived by Yoho Tsuda, Shosuke Sekioka, Heihachiro Sakai. This book focuses on their work through a selection of their photography, an essay by art historian Ryuichi Kaneko, a longer text on Yoho Tsuda and biographic overviews (all available in Japanese and English translation).

Gen Otsuka
56 pages, 27 images, 2018

This issue focuses on the work of Gen Otsuka, the first true photojournalist in Japan. Using wide-angle photography as well as montage, Otsuka’s work is marked by an excellent sense for artistic photography. In addition to Otsuka’s photographs, the book also features an essay by art historian Ryuichi Kaneko as well as a biographic overview (all available in Japanese and English translation).

Yasumasa Morimura: High, Red, Central, Action
56 pages, 29 images, 2018

This book introduces works and performances by Yasumasa Morimura which are based on the influential group Hi-Red Center, a leading avant-garde art collective from the 1960s. The works featured include “Cometman” (1990), “For Kazuo Ohno’s Admiring La Argentina” (2010” and “High, Red, Central, Action” (2018). Essays by Yuri Mitsuda and Yasumasa Morimura provide further context and information (all available in Japanese and English translation).