Masahisa Fukase, Homo Ludens, 2025

This reprint of Homo Ludens finally brings Masahisa Fukase’s debut photography book back into the spotlight, fifty years after its original publication.

Compiled from photographs taken over a period of more than ten years, Homo Ludens marks the beginning of Fukase’s career. Edited by Shoji Yamagishi, editor of Camera Mainichi, and divided into six chapters, the book presents series shot in the 1960s which, despite their early place in Fukase’s oeuvre, already exude the essence that shaped the artist’s subsequent series: ‘Slaughter’, taken between 1961 and 1963 in a slaughterhouse in Shibaura; ‘Congratulations’, about the early days of Fukase’s marriage to his wife Yoko; “Frolic”, about the underground youth culture of Shinjuku in the summer of 1968; “Memento”, one of Fukase’s first known works, which recounts his marriage to his first wife, Yukiyo; ‘Mother’, taken in 1963, for which he asked his future wife, Yoko, to pose in a bizarre manner with her mother; and ‘Music’, a humorous look at Fukase’s life with Yoko, his mother and a Siamese cat in a residential complex.

This new edition includes all the photographs and texts from the original version and has been designed with particular attention to emphasising the relationship between the images and the surrounding negative space. This approach represents a timeless response to Fukase’s vision.

It also includes two essays, in Japanese and English translation, by Shoji Yamagishi and Nada Inada, taken from the original edition.