BASE Akihide Tamura

This is a photo book by Japanese photographer Akihide Tamura.

Akihide Tamura was selected as an exhibiting artist for the 1974 exhibition "New Japanese Photography" held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which was the first opportunity to widely introduce the work of Japanese photographers overseas. He also received high praise for his still photography for films by Japan's leading film director, Akira Kurosawa, such as "Kagemusha," "Ran," and "Dreams."

He currently teaches at photography schools and is committed to nurturing the next generation of photographers.

This book is a collection of photographs by Tamura capturing the scenes of U.S. military bases such as Yokohama, Yokosuka, Misawa, and Atsugi, as well as fighter jets taking off and landing, from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

At the time of this photo shoot in the late 1960s, there was active anti-Vietnam War protests as well as protests against nuclear submarines entering Japanese ports, and the act of photographing the base was closely linked to political and social intentions.

However, Tamura had no such intention, and photographed the base out of an interest in the mysteriousness of knowing that what was on the other side of the wire mesh was overseas, as well as the shape of the fighter planes.This unconventional perspective attracted a great deal of attention in the Japanese photography world at the time.

This work gave Tamura the opportunity to publish his own work in camera magazines and other publications.