Fluence. The Continuance of Yohjl Yamamoto by Takay

(Hardback)

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Description

In his latest book, Takay presents photographs that pay homage to the creative power and style of the great Japanese designer, Yohji Yamamoto. Fluence was shot primarily in Tokyo, Japan. In it, Takay has captured the magic and mystery of artistic forces and his native country. The images in Fluence are shot in black and white which punctuate the subject and the black designs and silhouettes of Yojhi Yamamoto's clothing. The subjects in the book are some of Japan's most accomplished creatives, actors, musicians and models. The locations hark back to Japan of the 1980's, the end of the Showa era. Takay subconsciously chose locations that reflect this, the era he lived in prior to leaving Japan. These previously unseen photographs blend the Japanese landscape with the transformative power and energy of the people and the archive collection. The seed for this book was planted many years ago at the start of Takay's career when he worked with Terry Jones on a Yohji project, and came to fruition after he was offered the use of the Yohji Yamamoto archive collection which spans 40 years of design. In Takay's opinion, Yohji Yamamoto's designs have a strong avant-garde, masculine style, mixed with a strong Japanese sensibility and elegance. When he began his project, he thought about what he could do with the clothes but while working with the people dressed in the collection, there was a transformation visually for him, which inspired him to create the images in this book.

Reviews

Long resident in London and New York, the Japanese photographer Takay returned home to shoot this profoundly beautiful book, documenting three decades of experimental tailoring by the designer Yohji Yamamoto. Takay's subjects trail Mr. Yamamoto's black gowns and suits through undistinguished Tokyo streets; the fashion portraits alternate with images of birds on a power line or Shinjuku at midnight, shot in the grainy black-and-white style called are-bure-boke ("rough, blurred and out-of-focus"). Posing alongside the professional models are several titans of Japanese culture: the actress Rie Miyazawa, fragile and rumpled in a polka-dot gown from 1999; the theater director Yukio Ninagawa, pensive in a thick wool jacket; and even Daido Moriyama, the godfather of postwar Japanese photography, whose portrait here in a three-quarter-length overcoat embodies estranged Tokyo cool.--Jason Farago "New York Times"
Japanese avant-garde fashion maestro Yohji Yamamoto collaborated with photographer Takay to capture the experimental ethos and enduring legacy of the celebrated designer's longstanding conceptual legacy. Expect asymmetry, tonal darkness, and gender fluidity.--David Saric "S Magazine"
Shot in black and white on the streets of Tokyo by fashion photographer Takay, Fluence: The Continuance of Yohji Yamamoto celebrates the powerful influence of great Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto. In it, Yamamoto's designs, from 40 years of work, are modelled by some of Japan's best known creatives, blending the energy of the city and its citizens in the long shadows cast by the avant-garde designer.-- "TANK Magazine"

Author Bio

Takay is a Japanese photographer based in NYC whose photographs have been featured in major fashion publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue, and I-D, as well as in global advertising campaigns. Takay's artworks have been included in prestigious fashion exhibitions at major institutions around the world. His work has appeared in the Victoria & Albert Museum's exhibition Men in Skirts which travelled to the Metropolitan Museum (NY) in 2003, the Couture Chanel exhibition at the National Museum of China in Beijing and then in Shanghai in 2010, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier, From Sidewalk to the Catwalk touring from 2011-2016 to 12 cities around the world, and the Met's Spring 2013 Costume Institute exhibition PUNK: Chaos to Couture. In 2016 Takay released his book ECHOS, with a book launch and exhibition at BookMarc Tokyo.