Masahisa Fukase in Fondazione Sozzani

Masahisa Fukase was born in 1934 in Bifuka, in the Region of Hokkaido. Is considered to be one of the most radical and innovative photographers in the Japanese post-war scenario. He will later gain international fame thaks to his photographic series “karasu” (Japanese word for “Raven”), considered nowadays as a photograohic masterpiece.

As the eldest son, Fukase knew from a young age that he was destined to inherit the family owned photo studio which was founded by his grandfather in 1908. He used to help his parents to run the studio and later went to Tokyo to study photography.

Fukase’s divorce from Yoko in 1976 marked the start of the now worldly known series "Ravens", but also fell into depression and excessive alcohol consumption.

In 1992 a fall from the stairs due to alcohol intoxication happened, leaving him with a permanent brain trauma,which left him in a coma for the next 20 years.

In 2012, after his death his work finally started to gradually be accessible by the Masahisa Fukase Archives, to then open up to the public eyes. A lot of material that came up were archive images never seen before.

This exhibition in Fondazine Sozzani brings to the public the first retrospective exhibition of Masahisa Fukase in Italy. The exhibition has been curated by Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam in collaboration with Tomo Kosuga.

The vast majority of his works are series; his works are heavily based on a combination of emotions and life experiences, such as depression, love and loss. The images are in fact extremely personal and intimate, but also with a strong playful sense.

His series “Karasu”, or in English “Raven” (which I briefly mentioned before), is a black and white series with a strong visual narrative, realized during his trip to Hokkaido (his hometown). Skewing the traditional methods of documentary, this impressionistic narrative series became his obsession and it is now considered almost a synonym to the artist himself.

Towards the end of this career, the photographer turned the camera on himself more and more often. The impressive amount of self-portraits shows us the almost obsessive way that the artist related to his surroundings, and to himself.

Manami Galliker