One Picture Book Two #45: Kimono by Eikoh Hosoe (2025)

Small format hardback (6 x 8 1/2) in new condition

Limited to 500 numbered copies, each including a 5x7 inch original print that has been signed by the artist.

6 duotone plates

About

“This is my favorite small series. I had never created a work like this prior, and never have since, but it was heavily influenced by Aya Koda’s novel Kimono. Here is the spirit of a young photographer – I was 29 years old at the time – who wanted to see how far photography could come in competition with Ms. Koda's kimono literature, the best in Japan. I don't remember that mourning clothes appeared in the novel, but I really wanted to dress a beautiful woman, who lost her husband at a young age, in mourning clothes. So I persuaded Miki Aoyama, a model I was close to at the time, to be the widow. In the series “Kimono”, I wanted to depict the first half of a woman's life, up to marriage, married life, the death of her husband, and her determination to become independent.” — Eikoh Hosoe, 1988