Eikoh Hosoe — English Edition Monograph (MACK Books, 2021)
This 400-page monograph on Eikoh Hosoe, edited by Yasufumi Nakamori and published by MACK Books in September 2021, is the most extensive English-language survey of Hosoe's photographic practice assembled to date. Produced as an embossed hardback at 25 × 32.5 cm, the volume is structured for sustained reading rather than selective reference.
Nakamori's editorial approach extends well beyond Hosoe's canonical series. The book addresses collaborative work with figures from literature, performance, and visual culture — among them Yukio Mishima, Yayoi Kusama, and Shuzo Takiguchi. This scope distinguishes the volume from a conventional retrospective: rather than isolating Hosoe's output, it situates his photography within the broader intellectual and cultural conditions of postwar Japan. Critical texts, both newly commissioned and reprinted, support this contextual framing throughout.
Hosoe's significance in the history of postwar Japanese photography is not limited to his own images. He co-founded Vivo and later helped establish the Photography Workshop, two of the institutional structures through which a generation of photographers — including Daido Moriyama — developed their practice. Nakamori's editorial framing reflects this, treating the book as a document of a field as much as a record of an individual career. The result is a volume that functions as both monograph and historical account.
The book is held as part of the Photography & Photobooks catalogue at Lokator100, alongside a curated selection of Japanese Photobooks. A related title, A World of Eikoh Hosoe: Spherical Dualism of Photograph, is also available.
Eikoh Hosoe
Eikoh Hosoe, born in 1933 in Yamagata, is one of the central figures in the history of Japanese photography. Since the mid-1950s, he has worked across image-making, curating, teaching, and institutional development. His practice helped move photography in Japan away from older documentary models and toward a more complex intersection of art, literature, performance, and film.
Hosoe was also deeply involved in the structures around photography. He co-founded Vivo, later helped establish the Photography Workshop, and influenced later generations of photographers, including Daido Moriyama. For that reason, this book is not only an artist monograph — it is also an entry point into the wider history of postwar Japanese photography.
