Masahisa Fukase - Kill The Pig

Masahisa Fukase
Kill The Pig

Published by the(M) éditions & IBASHO, 2021
Size: 24.5x32.5cm
84 Pages
Hardcover
Languages: Japanese, English
ISBN: 979-10-95424-27-7

In 1961, Masahisa Fukase's first solo exhibition, Kill the Pig, was held in Tokyo. The exhibition featured two series of photographs: one titled Kill the Pig and the other titled Naked.
The Kill the Pig series features photographs taken at a slaughterhouse in Shibaura, Tokyo.
The series includes black and white photographs and color photographs.
The other series on display, Naked, features images of Fukase himself and his then-partner, Yukiyo Kawakami.
One of the photographs in the exhibition, however, stands out from the others. This stillborn baby is a highly contrasting work consisting of two prints, one positive, the other negative—two reversed black and white images presented face to face. This stillborn baby is Fukase and Yukiyo's first child. In the exhibition, this work is clearly highlighted, as a point of reference for all the other images.
It seems that Fukase is trying to emphasize, in both positive and negative ways, the cruelty and interconnection between life and death through this image.
This book brings together in a single volume the photographs that appeared in this exhibition. As he explains in his essay, Tomo Kosuga considers these images, which remained in the shadows for many years, as the starting point of Fukase's photographic practice.

- Editor's text