Tobera no ki no shita [Underneath the Tobera Tree].

First and only edition. Numerous photographic plates. Japanese text. Original boards in plastic dust-jacket, and decorated slipcase (slightly stained, small dent to lower right corner), still a very good copy signed & stamped by the photographer on title. 160pp. Nagoya, Privately Printed,

Usui Kaoru was born in Nagoya in 1916. He took up photography around 1933 as an amateur. From the 1930s to the 1950s Usui set up a series of amateur photography groups in Nagoya. One of these was Shu-dan 35, whose members included the young Tomatsu Shomei. Between 1950 and 1955 Usui won the annual Camera Magazine award three times, and his work was highly praised by Ken Domon. Usui's work encompassed a wide variety of styles and he was influenced by the realism of Domon Ken as well as the surrealism of Ueda Shoji, and possibly Yasui Nakaji. The present book is devided into two parts, namely the period of ARS Camera and the period of Photo Art, two publications to which he was a regular contributor. The black-and-white images are both unconventional and artificial in the best sense. C.f. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography: Nihon Shashinka Jiten - 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers. Tankosha, 2000. P. 58. No copy in OCLC.

Stock Code: 212965