Publications
My books are available at
Beyond Words(UK) https://beyondwords.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=Hiroshi+Watanabe
For any inquiry, please email contact@hiroshiwatanabe.com
AS THE SUN SETS ON ME, IT RISES ON YOU
Published by DARK SPRING PRESS
Publisher's description
Hiroshi Watanabe’s latest book of photographs highlights the artist’s early works as a young photographer in Japan, before moving to America and becoming a highly regarded fine art photographer. These images bear the raw, youthful energy of a young artist in his twenties, photographing his surroundings, his friends and moments both poignant and mundane. Some photos veer towards a surrealistic sensibility, occasionally playing with and skewing the genre of still-life photography. Many of the images in the book are everyday “snapshots”, intuitively-taken, without the careful planning and exquisite direction of his later work.
In the book’s essay, Kenji Takazawa writes, “The rich potential that snapshots possess has been flowing in the undercurrent of Watanabe’s work…As the Sun Sets on Me, it Rises on You, may be both a starting point and a departure from Watanabe’s origins and hometown.”
The 50 black and white photos in this soft bound book possess a melancholic mood while also conveying a restless spirit and an impulse to find artistic expression in daily life. As the essay describes, the images are “rough” compared to his previously published works and include accidental double exposures and overexposed film.
As the Sun Sets on Me, It Rises On You is published by Dark Spring Press, designed by Robert Gallerani and Andy Burgess, and includes an essay by Kenji Takazawa that was translated from Japanese by Hiroshi Watanabe.
Hiroshi Watanabe, As The Sun Sets On Me, It Rises On You. — Dark Spring Press
Kwaidan Stories and Studies of Strange Things
Stories by Lafcadio Hearn Photographs by Hiroshi Watanabe
Hardback
270 x 225 mm
28 B&W photographs
Published by Unicorn Publishing 978-1-911604-98-3
Publisher's Description Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was a uniquely international literary star: born in in the Greek isles to a British military surgeon, he grew up in Ireland, France, and Ohio—with stops along the way in Louisiana and the Caribbean—before finally settling in Japan. It is this last destination that brought him his most lasting acclaim. Kwaidan presents the complete text of Hearn’s classic 1903 book of Japanese ghost stories, collected during travels in his adopted homeland and presented in English for consumption by Western audiences. This edition pairs the original stories with twenty-eight photographs from celebrated photographer Hiroshi Watanabe, as well as an introduction from horror expert Paul Murray. Watanabe’s photographs provide illumination and illustration for these eerie tales. This new edition of a classic text is likely to appeal to worldwide fans of Japanese folklore, supernatural stories, and contemporary photography.
Limited Edition with a silver gelatin print from one of the 4 photos below. Print is 6x6 inch image size, printed, signed, and numbered by artist, each in an edition of 25. Cased in double slip case.
For more information, please inquire at contact@hiroshiwatanabe.com.
The Day the Dam Collapses
Daylight Books, 2014. 88 pp., 66 color illustrations, 7½x9½".
The latest body of work from California-based Japanese photographer Hiroshi Watanabe (born 1951), The Day the Dam Collapses consists (unusually for this artist) of digital pictures taken over the past five years (since his son was born). Ranging from seemingly ordinary details of quotidian life to poetic visual metaphors, the The Day the Dam Collapses paints the cycles of life as fleeting, fragile and devastatingly ephemeral. In his introduction to the book, Watanabe writes: 'the truth is, we are all living like the characters in a disaster movie. We know we may someday face a disaster or a terrible event, but we keep living calmly as we do not know what and when that might occur. But a disaster will surely come to us. And the largest disaster must be our death that we all have to face sometime in the future.' Despite these looming intimations of mortality, Watanabe persists in recording and sharing a life fully felt.
Amazon.com: The Day the Dam Collapses: 9780989798112: Watanabe, Hiroshi, Rian, Kristen: Books
Love Point
Toseisha, 2010. 40 pp., 21 color illustrations, 10¼x10½".
The book contains an original short story by Richard Curtis Hauschild. First printing was 1000 copies.
About the Limited Edition
The Love Point Limited Edition includes choice of one of two prints, signed and number by the artist. Each print is in a limited edition of 40.
Print Option #1: Sleeping Kurika
Print Option #2: Mariko 4
Love Point - One Picture Book #66.
Nazraeli Press, Portland, 2010. Unpaged, Seven black & white illustration, one black & white photograph, 5¾x7½".
Suo Sarumawashi
photo-eye Edition's is pleased to announce our second publication, Suo Sarumawashi by Hiroshi Watanabe. Sarumawashi, "monkey dancing," has been in existence for over a thousand years in Japan.
This stunning limited edition portfolio is comprised of twelve pigment ink prints chosen from Watanabe's series of macaque monkey portraits made in 2008 and includes text by Watanabe and an official introduction from the Suo Sarumawashi Association. Limited to fifty copies along with three artist proofs, each is contained in an elegant anodized aluminum box. The pigment ink prints are made on 11x14 inch Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta.
Deluxe Edition:
The Deluxe Limited Edition of Suo Sarumawashi contains a thirteenth image, a gelatin-silver photograph, printed, signed and numbered by the Hiroshi Watanabe. Limited to twenty copies and two artist proofs, the Deluxe Edition is presented in black anodized aluminum box.
Ideology in Paradise
Mado-Sha, Tokyo, 2008. 120 pp., 112 color illustrations., 8½x10½".
"Renowned historian Orville Schell has likened the experience of visiting Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), akin to that of “visiting a faraway museum where we are able to commune with a series of carefully constructed dioramas based not on life during some past period, but on a far more fantastical world . . . a North Korean hallucination of the future. In fact, the experience of looking at Hiroshi Watanabe’s images is eerily like stepping into a Social Realist painting: the ruddy-cheeked young girl playing the accordion, the traditional gowns in brilliant pinks and greens of dancers swirling beneath the omnipresent image of the dear leader and the DPRK flag. One is quietly lulled into the sense that life in North Korea might, in fact, be just as it appears within the frames of these images—normal—instead of like the stories of kidnappings, military posturing, and famine. To Watanabe, it is this sense of tension between the news stories flooding the media in both Japan and in the U.S. and his experiences traveling and photographing—under careful surveillance of his two guides and assigned driver—that interests him in this topic. The results, engaging, yet still mysterious, bring us one side of this closed-off place, introducing us to a vibrant, compelling set of individuals, but still leave us to wonder. " Lesley A. Martin
パラダイス・イデオロギー―渡邉博史写真集: 9784896250916: Amazon.com: Books
I See Angels Every Day
Photographs by Hiroshi Watanabe. Text by Hiroshi Watanabe, Masafumi Suzuki, and Eiko Hosoe
Mado-sha, Tokyo, In English and, 2007. In Japan. 92 pp., 80 black-and-white photographs, 8¾x10¼".
"Actually, the angel ought to have had his dwelling in me. But he knew only angelic truth and understood nothing about man." from Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung.
"Hiroshi Watanabe's newest book I see Angels Every Day takes place in the San Lazaro Psychiartic Hospital and the surrounding town of Quito, Ecuador in 2001. Unlike the angel in Jung's dream, Watanabe's manifestations of his visions in photographs reveal an understanding of mankind's truth. As Suzuki Masufumi's states in his prelude to this book, Watanabe is willing to "situate himself within the double-mirror of the gazes" to look outward and embrace being gazed upon-to understand. The book includes 80 plates expanding the work previously seen in the self-published, Faces Vol. 1. San Lazaro Psychiatric Hospital. These photographs, along with still lifes and additional portraits, are divinely printed in monochrome.
–Melanie McWhorter
I See Angels Every Day: Hiroshi Watanabe: 9784896250855: Amazon.com: Books
Findings
Photolucida, Portland, 2007. Unpaged
"These are honest and direct pictures; they bear a heavy silence, and are uncomplicated, singular ideas. These words invite a closer look uncompromised by time. They suggest a meditation that can bring to the surface what could otherwise have remained hidden - that opening in the sky beyond the child and his maze, and what it can mean."
Anthoy Bannon, George Eastman House Director
FINDINGS LIMITED EDITION:
The Deluxe Limited Edition of FINDINGS comes with a choice of one of three toned gelatin silver prints. All prints are made by the artist from the original negatives and archivally processed on fiber base paper and toned. Each print is 6x6 in image size and matted in a 9x10 4-ply archival matte. The prints are numbered, signed, and dated on verso. Book and print are cased together in a clothbound clamshell box. This edition is limited to 50 set per image-150 in total.
El Arbolito Park, Quito, Ecuador
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain
Baseball Field, Tokyo University, Japan
Read Mary Anne Redding's review of Findings in photo-eye Magazine.
Amazon.com: Findings: 9781934334003: Hiroshi Watanabe: Books
Faces Vol.1
San Lazaro Psychiatric Hospital
2003. Unpaged, numerous illustrations, 7¼x7¼".
With this book, you will get a 6x6 gelatin silver print of 'Patient AL, Blind' or 'Patient ES, Schizophrenic'. The print is signed and numbered, and the edition is open-ended.
Faces Vol.2
Kabuki Players
Watanabe, Hollywood, 2004. 20 pp., numerous illustrations, 7x7".
With this book, you will get a print of any image you choose from the book. Your print will be a 8x10 toned gelatin silver print with approximately 6x6 image size, printed by the artist, signed, dated and numbered. Each image is a limited edition of 100. Each book comes with a slip to be mailed with you choice of image. The print will be mailed to you after you choice is received. Please note images may become unavailable when the editions are sold out. If it happens, please choose another image.
Faces Vol. 3
Ena Bunraku
Hiroshi Watanabe, West Hollywood, 2005. 20 pp., 20 black-and-white plates, 7x7".
With this book, you will get a print of any image you choose from the book. Your print will be a 8x10 toned gelatin silver print with approximately 6x6 image size, printed by the artist, signed, dated and numbered. Each image is a limited edition of 100. Each book comes with a slip to be mailed with you choice of image. The print will be mailed to you after you choice is received. Please note images may become unavailable when the editions are sold out. If it happens, please choose another image.
Bunraku, a traditional Japanese stage art performed with puppets, was created during the Edo period. The puppets are about one meter tall and are usually manipulated by three puppeteers who make the puppets appear alive. The puppet’s faces vividly display emotions while the puppeteers are visible on stage dressed in black outfits. Bunraku plays are also accompanied by traditional musical instruments known as Shamisen together with a singer-narrator who tells the story with deeply felt emotions.
Faces Vol. 4
Noh Masks of Naito Clan.
Watanabe, Hollywood, 2005. 20 pp., Numerous Illustartions, 7x7".
Intended as a complement to his previous Kabuki and Bunraku books, this newest work from Hiroshi Watanabe documents the Noh masks of the Naito Clan of southern Japan, some of which are more than 300 years old. These masks are intended to convey the mood and character of the part played by a performer in an extremely stylized dramaturgical form dating back to the feudal period.
With this book, you will get a print of any image you choose from the book. Your print will be a 8x10 toned gelatin silver print with approximately 6x6 image size, printed by the artist, signed, dated and numbered. Each image is a limited edition of 100. Each book comes with a slip to be mailed with you choice of image. The print will be mailed to you after you choice is received.
Veiled Observations & Reflections
West Hollywood, 2002. Unpaged, 20 duotone illustrations, 8x8".
I made a small book titled "Veiled Observations and Reflections" to accompany the show of the same title held at White Room Gallery in August 2002. The book is 8x8 in size. It contains 20 images selected from the show and a 6x6 gelatin silver print of 'White Terns, Midway Atoll' (SOLD OUT) or 'El Arbolito Park, Quito, Ecuador'. The print is signed and numbered, and each image is limited edition of 200.
Limited Edition Prints Available:
El Arbolito Park, Quito, Ecuador
Artifacts: Things from Japanese Internment Camps
produces by Hibiku, Inc, Japan as an iPad app photo book
99 Finding
99 Findings is an iPad book app that expands on my earlier Photolucida book "Findings". It includes video clip of an interview by Douglas Stockdale and video showing my working method in darkroom.
Ten Years On - A Collection of Songs in Remembrance of September 11th 2001
For the landmark 10th Anniversary of September 11th 2001, Welsh recording artist Jem has compiled an album of moving reflective songs by a group of respected and acclaimed artists who have come together to raise awareness and funds for the 9/11 Memorial and create something special for the victims families. The album consists of 19 touching songs and is a digital worldwide release available on iTunes, AmazonMP3 and www.tenyearsonalbum.com from September 1st 2011. 100 percent of profits go to the 9/11 Memorial. Artists involved include Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Alanis Morissette, Dido, Johnny Cash, Simon & Garfunkel, John Lennon, Jem, Dave Matthews, Stevie Wonder, Cindy Lauper, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic, among others.