Flash up - Street Photo Random Tokyo 1975-1979

Seiji Kurata
Flash up - Street Photo Random Tokyo 1975-1979

Photographs: Seiji Kurata

Text: Akira Hasegawa

Publisher: Byakuya Shobo

Pictures: 190

Year: 1980

Comments: Softcover under acetate dust jacket and obi, 300 x 215 mm. First edition, first printing, 1980. Black & white photographs. Text in english and in japanese. Included in Martin Parr & Gerry Badger, The Photobook, vol. II, p.305. Copy in very good condition

Flash Up by Seiji Kurata is one of the most exciting photographic excursions into the seedy parts of 1970s Tokyo. Kurata, a natural who began his photographing career doing workshops with revered greats such as Daido Moriyama and Araki Nobuyoshi, takes us on a journey through the nightclub scene of Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, he shows us glimpses of the cocky, tattooed yakuza underworld and of violent Bosozoku street fights, contrasts car crash victims with portraits of nightclub hostesses and the horny salarymen groping them for money, documents ultra-right wingers in Meiji Jingu and on tour in the countryside.