Keizo Kitajima - New York *Signed*

Publisher: PCT
Year: 2024
Format: Softcover
Edition: 1st Edition
Condition: New
Pages: 250
Size: 26 x 19cm

This 2024 edition brings together two series of photographs by Keizo Kitajima made in New York: the first in black and white, taken in 1981 and 1982 (previously published in Kitajima's 1982 book "New York"), and the second in color, taken in 1986, 1987, and 1989.

The book begins with Kitajima's series from the early 1980s. Arriving in New York for the first time, Kitajima rented an apartment in the East Village and devoted himself entirely to photography: he left his apartment at 10 a.m., photographed until evening, took a break, then returned to the streets to shoot more. On rainy days, he worked in his darkroom at home. In these black-and-white images, Kitajima captures New York at the possible peak of its cultural significance: gritty, impoverished, and dangerous, yet intensely diverse, multicultural, expressive, and creative.

Throughout the series, he focuses on what truly defines New York - not its architecture, but its people. Several years later, in the color series, New York appears differently in Kitajima's photographs. Though still diverse, the city is now more affluent, but also tamer and more serious; smiles are rare. In his afterword, Kitajima notes, “In just a few years, the streets of New York, including the places where I lived, were completely transformed. It was changing into an arena where people staked their lives on the competition for economic gain.”