eikoh hosoe, one of japan's most renowned photographers on show at the galleria carla sozzani, milan 2003 ................................................................
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eikoh hosoe december 12, 2002 - january 12, 2003 galleria carla sozzani, milan http://www.galleriacarlasozzani.org --- ba-ra-kei / ordeal by roses in 1963, hosoe published a book of photographs entitled 'barakei' (ordeal by roses), in which a baroque-like world of aestheticism was structured with novelist and provocateur yukio mishima as the subject (and with the founder of the butoh dance movement tatsumi hijikata). mishima admired hosoe's work and was happy to surrender his muscular body to be immortalized by hosoe's genius. 'before hosoe's camera,' mishima wrote, 'I soon realized that my own spirit, the workings of my mind, had become totally redundant. it was an exhilarating experience, a state of affairs I had long dreamed of.' this work won international fame. before publication of the second issue, in november 1970, mishima wrote ' I will never admit the decay of the flesh.' - a few weeks before his death by seppukucommits ritual suicide (thesebook were published in 1963 and 1971 by shueisha). hosoe was bombarded with requests for photographs of mishima, but refused to relinquish them for fear that the photos would be taken out of context. the dark dreamlike quality of these images of mishima foreshadowed the writer's suicide. --- back to the article --- --- --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	ordeal by roses book cover ordeal by roses 32, 1961 © eikoh hosoe courtesy galleria carla sozzani ordeal by roses 7, 1961 © eikoh hosoe courtesy galleria carla sozzani ordeal by roses, 1961 © eikoh hosoe courtesy galleria carla sozzani ordeal by roses, 1961 © eikoh hosoe courtesy galleria carla sozzani