A Criminal Investigation (First edition)

Yukichi Watabe
A Criminal Investigation (First edition)

Photographs: Yukichi Watabe

Publisher: Editions Xavier Barral / Le BAL

100 pages

Year: 2011

Comments: Hardcover, 29 x 23 cm, b&w photographs. First edition, 2011. Text in French and English. In very good condition other than traces of use. The elastic band is a little loose. Mentioned in THE PHOTOBOOK VOL 3, Parr and Badger. Signed by the publisher during the exhibition opening at the BAL.

On 14 January 1958, the disfigured and amputated body of a man was discovered near Lake Sembako in Japan. Two investigators from Tokyo came to help the local police solve what seemed at first sight to be a banal case. But it is not to be. For the first time, a photographer is allowed to accompany the police to document the case. Watabe followed the inspector as he interviewed witnesses (workers in a tannery factory, local policemen, etc.) and scoured Tokyo's most insalubrious districts - its bars, bridges, passageways, hospitals - in search of the murderer. Much more than a police investigation, Watabe's images reveal a Tokyo of the 1950s, rarely shown in this way.

(From the publisher, translated from French)