IDE (Denjiro). &
HIBIKI PHOTO STUDIO.
Nagasaki - Souvenir du Nagasaki.
The first part of the present work is a yearbook and a commemorative album for graduates of the Medical School of Nagasaki University in 1928. While being a wide-ranging introduction to the University with its departments, clubs and societies, as well as an illustrated history of Nagasaki, many of the images bear the hallmarks of the ‘geijutsu shashin’ movement. The style of this book is reminiscent of the work by Iida Kosaburo entitled ‘Kohoku Ingashu’ (Privately published, 1914) which is regarded amongst the first artistic photobook to have been published in Japan: Both use a variety of papers in different colours and textures to produce an interesting artistic effect - more of a record of memories in the form of an album than a documentary depiction of the city. Little is known about the Hibiki Shashinkan, apart from the fact that it was a commercial studio run by Ide Denjiro in Nagasaki during the 20s and 30s. He experimented with the various printing techniques to produce the soft, hazy, and and emotionally laden images that the pictorialists aspired to. No copy in OCLC.