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Provoke / Purovoku: shisho no tame no chohatsuteki shiryo kikan dai 1-go [Provokative Materials for Thought. Quarterly. No. 1]; Provoke / Purovoku: shisho no tame no chohatsuteki shiryo kikan dai 2-go [Provokative Materials for Thought. Quarterly. No. 2]; Provoke / Purovoku: shisho no tame no chohatsuteki shiryo kikan dai 3-go [Provokative Materials for Thought. Quarterly. No. 3]; [with] Amano Michie. Mazu tashikarashisa no sekai o sutero. Shashin to gengo no shiso [First, Abandon the Realm of Verisimilitude. Thoughts on Photography and Language].

[PROVOKE]. NAKAHIRA, Takuma; TAKANASHI, Yutaka; TAKI, Koji; OKADA, Takahiko; MORIYAMA, Daido.

  • Publisher: Tokyo, Provokesha, 1968, 1969, 1969; & 1970.
Tokyo, Provokesha, 1968, 1969, 1969; & 1970. . First edition, inscribed by Takanashi Yutaka below the introduction; 4to (210 x 210 mm, 8¼ x 8¼ in); texts by Taki Koji and Okada Takahiko, black-and-white photographs by Nakahira Takuma, Takanashi Yutaka, and Taki Koji in relief halftone; self-endpapers, white printed wrappers, text in black, toned and soiled, handling creases to lower side, a very good copy; [ii], 68, [2]pp. Provoke No. 2: First edition; 4to (242 x 180 mm, 9½ x 7 in); text by Okada Takahiko, black-and-white photographs by Moriyama Daido, Taki Koji, Nakahira Takuma, and Takanashi Yutaka in relief halftone printed by Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.; self-endpapers, grey printed wrappers, text in black, light wear to extremities, light rubbing along spine-fold, handling creases and marks, without the band, a very good copy; 107, [2]pp. Provoke No. 3: First edition; 4to (240 x 184 mm, 9½ x 7¼ in); texts by Gozo Yoshimasu, Okada Takahiko, and Taki Koji, photographs by Moriyama Daido, Taki Koji, Nakahira Takuma, Takanashi Yutaka in relief halftone printed by Ichimura Genshokuban Insatsu, Tokyo; red printed wrappers with flaps, text in black, fine; 110, [2]pp (incl. 2 folding). 'Amano Michie': First edition; 8vo (205 x 144 mm, 8 x 5¾ in); texts by Amano Michie and Okada Takahiko, photographs by Moriyama Daido, Nakahira Takuma, Takanashi Yutaka, and Taki Koji in relief halftone printed by Seiwa, Tokyo, lightly toned, light spotting to top edge, errata slip; self-endpapers, photo-illustrated wrappers, printed in burgundy, light wear to bottom edge, minor creasing to spine, photo-illustrated dust-jacket, printed in red and black, light toning, minor wear to extremities, without the band, a very good copy; [ii], 340, [8]pp. Provoke was co-founded by Nakahira, Tatsuma, Okada Takahiko, Takanashi Yutaka, and Taki Koji, with Moriyama Daido joining them for the second issue. The group disbanded after publication of Provoke 3, and the following year issued First, Abandon the Realm of Verisimilitude (Provoke 4 & 5) as a summary of their activities, reproducing five photographic sequences and six texts. Taki's introduction to Provoke 1 serves as a manifesto for the group: 'Photographs alone are not ideas. They cannot encompass the totality of a concept, nor have they the interchangeability of language. Yet, because of their irreversible physicality - moments of reality clipped by the camera - photographs inhabit a world that lies behind language, at times provoking the world of ideas. When this happens, language can overcome its own rigid conventions, transforming into new words, new meanings. Today, as words are severed from their material base, their reality, to flutter in space, we photographers must use our own eyes to grasp fragments of reality far beyond the reach of pre-existing language, presenting materials that actively oppose words and ideas. Thus we have to swallow a certain degree of embarrassment in order to give PROVOKE the subtitle: materials to provoke thought.' The Open Book pp240–1, pp242–3, pp244–5, pp252–3; The Japanese Photobook 251, 252, 253, 254.

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