Showa Photography / Complete Works SERIES 8 Masaya Nakamura

A collection of Masaya Nakamura's (1926–2001) work spanning approximately 50 years.
Volume 8 of the "Showa Photography: Complete Works" series published by Asahi Shimbun in 1983. It includes Nakamura's diverse works, from post-war documentary photography to portraits of women, nudes, landscapes, and performing arts.

It introduces works documenting post-war Japanese society and culture, beginning with early works such as "Tokyo Communications," "Washington Heights," and "Tokyo Port," as well as his travels with Ango Sakaguchi and photographs of the Kubota Mantaro couple. It continues with "Glamour Photo" and "Young Nudes," which gained attention in the 1950s as new expressions in photography of women, and further to works exploring the relationship between the female body and landscapes and spaces, such as "Atelier," "Field Division," "Kyoto," and "Emma Nude in Africa."

This book is composed of chapters titled "Early Works: Yearning for Freedom," "A World of Fusion," "A Journey to Confirm Love," and "Sublimated Passion." Focusing on the changing expressions of the female body over time, it also includes photographs taken abroad, traditional culture in Kyoto, and the figure of Kabuki actor Tokuzo Nakamura, tracing the evolution of Nakamura's photographic expression.

At the end of the book, it includes Nakamura's own autobiography and chronology, as well as dialogues and essays on Nakamura's photographic world by Koichi Kato, Yoshisato Kinuma, Kyoko Yamagishi, and others. In the afterword, he looks back on his own journey of continuing to take photographs for approximately 50 years while reviewing past negatives.

A volume that surveys the activities of photographer Masaya Nakamura along with the evolution of photography of women and nude expressions in post-war Japan.

[Title] Showa Photography: Complete Works SERIES 8 Masaya Nakamura
[Publisher] Asahi Shimbun
[Publication Date] February 1, 1983 (First Edition)
[Number of Pages] 152 pages
[Size] Approx. 245 × 299 × 17 mm / 1030 g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] Showa Shashin: Zen Shigoto Series 8 Nakamura Masaya
[Author/Editor, etc.] Masaya Nakamura, Author; Akio Okai and Yoshiko Notoya, Editors; Keisuke Kibashi, Cover Design and Layout
[Printing/Binding] Toppan Printing
[ISBN] -
[Condition] Used [6] Good to Fair (Obi: Fraying, minor tears repaired)
[Accessories] Obi
[Featured Books] -
[Related Exhibitions] -

Masaya Nakamura (1926–2001)

Born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1926. Photographer. In 1948, he graduated from the Department of Photography at the Tokyo Higher School of Industrial Arts (now the Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University). In the same year, he joined the photography department of the Yomiuri Shimbun, but soon resigned. After working for a film magazine and other roles, he began working as a freelance photographer.

In the 1950s, he worked in news and documentary photography, and in 1955, he serialized "New Nihon Fudoki: Ango Sakaguchi" in the Asahi Shimbun's "Chuo Koron" through a reporting trip with author Ango Sakaguchi. In 1956, he published "Glamour Photo," which featured photographs of female models and attracted attention as a new expression in photography of women. The following year, in 1957, he published "Young Nudes" and won the Newcomer Award of the Japan Photography Critics Association.

In 1958, he opened "Masaya Studio" in Shinjuku, Tokyo. He worked in a wide range of fields, including advertising, fashion, magazines, and nude photography. In 1960, he published the photo book "Nues Japonaises" with the French company Prisma. He also presented his work overseas.

From the 1960s onward, he developed works exploring the relationship between the female body and space. He published works such as "Atelier," "Castle," "Field Division," and "Kyoto," and in 1971, he published "Emma Nude in Africa," which featured photographs of model Emma Sugimoto taken in Africa. He also worked on pieces with themes of traditional Japanese culture and landscapes.

In 1979, he became president of the Japan Advertising Photographers Association. Focusing on portraits of women and nude photography, he continued to take photographs in diverse fields such as advertising, landscapes, and performing arts.

Major photo books include "Nues Japonaises" (1960), "Emma Nude in Africa" (1971), "The Heart and Spirit of Japan" (1981), and "Showa Photography: Complete Works SERIES 8 Masaya Nakamura" (1983). He passed away in 2001.

< Related Figures >

Masaya Nakamura
Emma Sugimoto
Shotaro Akiyama
Seiji Otake
Takashi Kijima
Koichi Kato
Yoshisato Kinuma
Kyoko Yamagishi
Asahi Shimbun