This reprint of "Homo Ludens" finally brings back Masahisa Fukase's debut photobook 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 Camera Mainichi editor Shoji Yamagishi and divided into six chapters, the book presents series shot in the 1960s that, despite their early place in Fukase's oeuvre, already teem with the essence that shaped Fukase's later series: "Slaughter," shot between 1961 and 1963 at a slaughterhouse in Shibaura; "Congratulations," about the early days of Fukase's marriage to his wife, Yoko; "Frolic," about underground youth culture in Shinjuku in the summer of 1968; "Memento," one of Fukase's earliest known works, which looks back on Fukase's marriage to his first wife, Yukiyo; "Mother," taken in 1963, for which he asked his future wife, Yoko, to pose in strange ways with her mother; and "Music," a humorous look at Fukase's life with Yoko, her mother, and a Siamese cat in an apartment complex.

This new reprint edition includes all the photographs and text from the original version, and was designed with an emphasis on emphasizing the relationship between the images and the surrounding negative space. This approach serves as a timeless response to Fukase's vision. It also includes two essays in Japanese and English translation, one each by Shoji Yamagishi and Nada Inada, from the original edition.

first edition