Japanese Sculpture Ken Domon

*This book is secondhand.

This is a photobook by the Japanese photographer, Ken Domon.

Domon is known for his magnum opus, Koji Junrei (Pilgrimages to Ancient Temples), which documented over a hundred temples across Japan for more than 40 years. His diverse body of work also includes: Chikuhō no Kodomotachi (Children of Chikuhō), capturing children living in the Kyushu coal mines; Hiroshima, which documented the city 12 years after the atomic bomb and the people suffering from radiation after-effects; portraits of novelists and artists; and photography of the Japanese classical puppet theater, Bunraku.

Domon was famously opposed to any action by a photographer that might twist the truth through staging or manipulation. As a judge for the monthly photo critique in the specialist magazine Camera, he promoted the clear goals of "absolute snap without staging" and the "direct connection between camera and motif," sparking a major movement known as the "Realism Photography Movement" in Japanese photography circles during the 1950s.

This book was published in 2000 to accompany the exhibition "Ken Domon: Japanese Sculpture" held at the Chiba City Museum of Art. It features both monochrome and color photographs by Domon that capture Buddhist statues created in Japan between the years 700 and 1300 AD.

Each photograph possesses meticulous detail, created through various techniques: using a large-format camera with a small aperture to increase resolution in the dim light of temple halls, sometimes employing long exposures lasting over an hour; and repeatedly firing a strobe flash to emphasize the sculptural beauty of the statues. From these images, one can feel Domon's intense, focused gaze on his subjects and the unwavering passion for Buddhist statues that persisted even after a cerebral hemorrhage confined him to a wheelchair.