鴉 (karasu)

Masahisa Fukase’s renowned photo book 「鴉」(karasu in Japanese, or “Ravens” in English)(1) was recommended to me as a source of inspiration for my project. I was hesitant to look at it because (perhaps unbeknown to the person who recommended it) I have a phobia of birds, and even looking at an image or representation of a bird makes me feel uncomfortable. However, being a creator sometimes means having to suffer and push yourself outside your comfort zone. 

My immediate response to the collection of black and white images was that there was a foreboding sense of unease and disquiet, perhaps evoked through the dark and sometimes grainy images. It brought to mind scenes from  Hitchcock’s film,The Birds (1963), a film which I despise due to the nature of its plot. Both works elevate my anxiety and confirm my innate fear of flying, clawed creatures. Both have an ominous overtone.

I was able to locate a video on YouTube (2) that showed a flip through of the entire book, allowing me to get a sense of the work as a whole.

In a review (3) for the Guardian Online, Sean O’Hagan states that“with Ravens, Fukase eschewed traditional notions of portraiture and documentary, instead creating an impressionistic narrative that merges the deeply personal – his forlorn and obsessive state of mind – and the allegorical – the collective trauma of postwar Japan.” (The Guardian. 30 May 2017.)

Above image from Josef Chaldek on photobooks and books

(1) Fukase, M 1986, Karasu, 2nd edn, Sokyu-sha, Tokyo.

(2) Huang, W 2018, Ravens by Masahisa Fukase, video, viewed 03 April 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMmHSGnkgHM>

(3)O’Haga, S 2017, Ravens by Masahisa Fukase review – a must for any serious photobook buff, The Guardian (online), viewed 03 April 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/30/ravens-masahisa-fukase-review-are-celebrated-photo-book>