Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Shigeru Onishi: Mathematical Structures

Shigeru Onishi: Mathematical Structures

Onishi, Shigeru
Kaneko, Ryuichi
Heiting, Manfred

Hardcover

Photographers

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ISBN10: 3958297064
ISBN13: 9783958297067
Publisher: Steidl
Published: Nov 16 2021
Pages: 224
Weight: 2.70
Height: 1.10 Width: 9.30 Depth: 11.30
Language: English

Photography as painting as printing: the avant-garde vision of an unknown postwar Japanese master

This book presents an overview of the astounding photographic oeuvre of Shigeru Onishi (1928-94) from the 1950s. Whether depicting nudes, cityscapes, trees or interiors (or combinations of these realized through multiple exposures or photomontages), what is most striking about Onishi's photos are his unorthodox printing methods: using a brush to coat the photographic paper with emulsion, fogging, discoloration with acetic acid, creating the effect that the fixing process was incomplete, and color correction by varying the temperature during development.

The painterly results show Onishi's interest to be not conventional representation but, in his words, the visual formation of ideas, and bringing out the flavors of the image as they change by embracing all aspects of chance involved in the photographic process. In truth, he argues, if your photograph consists only of planned elements, it is essentially identical to a drawing of a single equilateral triangle.

Also a mathematician, Onishi approached his work in this light: To know the conditions of the object's formation--this is the purpose of my photography, which is founded on a desire to pursue metamathematic propositions such as 'the possibility of existence' and 'the possibility of optional choice.'

Mathematical Structures, made in collaboration with MEM, Tokyo, is the first comprehensive book to present Onishi's startlingly original vision.

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