[Rare Censored Cover] Rochester, NY: Dark Sun Press, 1982. Softcover in illustrated, stapled wraps. ISBN10: 0937968013. True first edition, first printing with withdrawn, censored cover. Measures 10 x 8-1/2 inches, unpaginated (20 pages) illustrated throughout with black and white duotone printed photographs by Hosoe. 

Published to accompany the 1982 exhibition of works by Japanese avant-garde photographer Eikoh Hosoe, the entire run of the first printing of this catalogue was withdrawn and never distributed. The exhibition was shown in three different locations in Rochester, NY (the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Visual Studies Workshop, and the George Eastman House-now Museum). 

The cover photograph used on the first printing was rejected after publication due to concerns over the sexual nature of Hosoe’s photograph, “Embrace, #48, 1970.” That image was replaced with “Ordeal by Roses, #32, 1962” on the slightly smaller released catalogue. “Embrace #48” is not included in the released catalogue.

Excellent condition, essentially new-old-stock, with both the covers and text block, including black-and-white images, bright and clean. 

Eikoh Hosoe (細江 英公, Hosoe Eikō, born 18 March 1933 in Yonezawa, Yamagata) is a Japanese photographer and filmmaker who emerged in the experimental arts movement of post-World War II Japan. Hosoe is best known for his dark, high contrast, black and white photographs of human bodies. His images are often psychologically charged, exploring subjects such as death, erotic obsession, and irrationality. Some of his photographs reference religion, philosophy and mythology, while others are nearly abstract, such as Man and Woman # 24, from 1960. He was professionally and personally affiliated with the writer Yukio Mishima and experimental artists of the 1960s such as the dancer Tatsumi Hijikata, though his work extends to a diversity of subjects. His photography is not only notable for its artistic influence but for its wider contribution to the reputations of his subjects.