Back to Okinawa 1980/2009 (Signed)

Keizo Kitajima
Back to Okinawa 1980/2009 (Signed)

Photographs: Keizo Kitajima

Text: Keizo Kitajima

Publisher: PPP Editions

18 pages

Year: 2009

Comments: Silkscreen cover and hand-sewn binding, 430 x 305 mm. Newsprint. Black & white photographs. Limited edition of 250 numbered and signed copies. In great condition.

In 1980, Keizo Kitajima, a recent student from Daido Moriyama’s “Workshop,” photographed the nightlife in Okinawa. Preferring the clubs and bars in Koza, the “red light district,” situated near Kadena, the American Air Force Base. Originally self-published in four volumes in a bi-monthly periodical called Photo Express Okinawa. Each volume concentrates on a specific time frame during a single month (ie: January 1-15), much like a visual diary. There are no surviving photographs or negatives from this body of work so the images for this limited edition and accompanying show at Andrew Roth (NY April 2009) were scanned from original volumes.

“Affection, hatred, rejection, acceptance: everything was there in Okinawa and nothing was a given. I wanted to make photographs that transcended all that… My generation was profoundly impacted by America. It is impossible to objectify my feelings about it.” Keizo Kitajima