art book cologne GmbH & Co. KG
Deutzer Freiheit 107
50679 Köln
Germany
Opening hours (office and showroom):
Monday to Friday 8 – 17
info@artbookcologne.de
Phone: +49 221 800 80 80
Fax: +49 221 800 80 82
art book cologne, founded by Bernd Detsch in 1997, is a wholesale company and specializes in buying and selling high quality publications in art, art theory, architecture, design, photography, illustrated cultural history and all related subjects internationally. Our team includes specialists in art, culture, music, book trade and media but in spite of our diversity we have one common ground: the enthusiasm for unique art books.
We purchase remaining stocks from museums, publishers and art institutions. We sell these remainders to bookstores, museum shops, and art dealers all over the world.
Publisher | Matsuoka |
Year | 2013 |
Cover | Cloth with dust jacket |
Language | English |
Pages | 216 |
Weight | 1486 g |
Illustrations | with 117 full-page b/w ills |
More | |
Article ID | art-12593 |
Hiro Matsuoka (Japan 1968) brings his work together in three self-published books. Each copy shows 39 black and white photographs in full page. He explores the possibilities of composition in square format, while remaining faithful to the characteristic uncanny ambience encountered in most of his pictures – an ambience carefully composed on the basis of perspective distortions, illusory games of light and other optical phenomena. Fragmented and unorthodox, his frames put their attention on advertising banners, screens and glass showrooms, all elements of routine everyday life and urban recreation areas. The interplay of out of focus images and reflections produces an alienating and bizarre effect, often on the verge of surrealism.
Despite the fact that Matsuoka’s photographs are non-staged instantaneous shots, his camera seems to capture a distant reality, far away from the banal. In the resulting overly unconventional compositions, the weight of the image falls from the center to the edges, fostering a sense of disequilibrium and uneasiness. Empty space dominates the center of the picture, while its protagonists are sent to the edge of the frame. Their faces are covered by shadows or appear vague and dissolved against the strong sun, and are often no longer recognizeable. The camera approaches the real but ends up registering its incomprehensible aspect. As if unwilling to be carried away by the obvious, it unravels, with a handful of irony, the grotesque language of advertising and mass media.
Thanks to the photographer we were able to put the 3 books in a set and can offer it at a reduced price.
The set consists of the following three titles:
Hiro Matsuoka – B's Vanity
Edition of 500. Matsuoka 2013. English. 72 pages, 39 ills. Duoton. 22 x 23 cm. 494 g. Hardcover with dust jacket.
Cover price 45,– €
Hiro Matsuoka – The Undescribed Dance
Edition of 500. Matsuoka 2010. English. 72 pages, 39 ills. Duoton. 22 x 23 cm. 504 g. Hardcover with dust jacket. ISBN 9789800072264
Cover price 45,– €
Hiro Matsuoka – Scenes and Stories
Edition of 500. Matsuoka 2007. English. 72 pages, 39 ills. Duoton. 22 x 23 cm. 504 g. Hardcover with dust jacket. ISBN 9789800062289
Cover price 45,– €