1st Edition
Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan The Impossible Avant-Garde
Despite the censorship of dissident material during the decade between the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, a number of photographers across Japan produced a versatile body of Surrealist work. In a pioneering study of their practice, Jelena Stojkovic draws on primary sources and extensive archival research and maps out art historical and critical contexts relevant to the apprehension of this rich photographic output, most of which is previously unseen outside of its country of origin. The volume is an essential resource in the fields of Surrealism and Japanese history of art, for researchers and students of historical avant-gardes and photography, as well as forreaders interested in visual culture.
Biography
Jelena Stojković, PhD is an art historian and writer based in London. She is Lecturer in History and Theory of Photography at the Arts University Bournemouth. □
Winner of Best Art Publication 2021 in the International Institute for Asian Studies' ICAS Book Prize!
"Jelena Stojkovic’s excellently researched book adds a new perspective not only to the history of photography but also to Japanese history. Offering original analyses and reproductions of more than 50 art works and clippings from newspapers and journals, this volume is an outstanding art publication."
--ICAS Book Prize committee
"Jelena Stojkovic's well-researched and detailed book ... is the first English-language monograph on Surrealist photography in Japan."
--The Burlington Magazine
"Richly detailed and critically astute, this is an important book that extends our understanding of Surrealism as a worldwide movement, and also tells us much about the importance of photography within Surrealism, a role that was often ignored and even dismissed at the time."
--Ian Walker, photographic historian, photographer, critic, curator and previously Professor of Photography at Newport in South Wales
