The photo book "1・9・4・7" by Miyako Ishiuchi (1947–) contains works created between January 1988 and January 1989. It features close-up shots of the hands and feet of women born in the same year as Ishiuchi, with each photograph captioned with the subject's profession. The details of the body—fingertips, nails, wrinkles, and skin texture—are sharply captured against a dark background, evoking the passage of time and the lives of these women. Among the subjects is Yoko Araki, the wife of photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, who was acquainted with Ishiuchi; the book is dedicated to her with the inscription "to YOKO" at the beginning. Yoko Araki passed away in 1990, the year this book was published.
Ishii herself says that "the body is a vessel for time and air," and likens photographing the extremities of the body, such as the hands and feet, to "collecting fragments of peeling skin." Unlike the gaze that seeks commodified "beauty" like in fashion photography, this series focuses on the traces of time etched on the body and captures those expressions in photographs.
This work, which embodies a perspective that confirms that Ishiuchi herself has also lived through the same time while facing the hands and feet of women of the same generation who became the subjects of her photographs, occupies an important position in her career.
[Title] 1.9.4.7
[Publisher] IPC
[Publication Date] December 25, 1990
[Number of pages] 126 pages
[Size] Approx. 27.1 x 29.3 x 1.2 cm, 0.97 kg
[Format] Softcover
[Title Reading] 1, 9, 4, 7
[Author(s), Editor(s), etc.] Miyako Ishiuchi / Author, Hiromi Ito / Text, Kyoko Yamagishi / Text and Composition, Tsunehisa Kimura / Book Design, Kuniyoshi Okuda / Layout
[Printing] Sunnichi Printing
[ISBN] 4-87198-831-7 C0072
[Condition] Used [ 4 ] Fair to Below Fair (stains on three edges, endpapers, and several pages; slight scratches on top and bottom edges)
[Accessories] None
[Published in]
[Related Exhibitions]
Ishiuchi Miyako (born 1947)
Born in Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture in 1947.
He began his photographic career in the late 1970s. In his early work, he focused on Tokyo and Yokosuka, capturing the lives of people and urban landscapes burdened by the shadows of the post-war period, attracting attention with his series. In 1979, he published the photo collection "Zesshou, Yokosuka Story."
In the 1980s, she released works such as "Apartment" and "Endless Night," which focused on the female body and traces of life, establishing her unique style of capturing personal memories and traces of the times in photographs.
Since the 1990s, her work has deepened into examining the history inscribed on her mother's belongings and women's bodies, and in particular, her "Hiroshima" series, in which she photographed the clothing of atomic bomb survivors, has gained worldwide acclaim.
He continues to be highly regarded both domestically and internationally, having represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2005 and winning the Hasselblad International Photography Award in 2014.
Currently, she continues to explore the relationship between the individual and society through photography, focusing on the themes of "memory and body."
Residing in Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture.
