River, its shadow of shadows.

Morinaga Jun was born in Nagasaki, where the atomic bomb killed his father and older sister. In 1960, the year he graduated from Nihon University College of Art, he began making abstract photographs of the pollution and decay along Tokyo's muddy rivers, continuing to work on the project over the following three years. The origin of this series is closely related to his memories of his father and sister, and these photographs became River, its shadow of shadows. Shortly after beginning this series, Morinaga met and showed his work to W. Eugene Smith, who was impressed and hired Morinaga to work as an assistant on a commission for Hitachi that would become Japan: Chapter of Image (1963). Morinaga's photographs of these Tokyo rivers foreshadow Smith's decision to document the catastrophic fallout from polluted waters in Minamata.

Smith's initial living costs in Japan whilst working on the Minamata project were covered by Motomura Kazuhiko, publisher of Morinaga's River, its shadow of shadows and three books by Robert Frank. Motomura met and befriended Morinaga while studying at the Tokyo College of Photography. Through Morinaga, Motomura met W. Eugene Smith, and then he met Robert Frank through Smith as a favour in return for helping Smith with the Minamata work. Motomura was an important collector of photographs and photography books and a tireless champion of Japanese photographers, promoting their work and supporting their books and exhibitions.

First edition; foilo (300 x 270 mm, 11¾ x 10¾ in); black-and-white photographs, texts by Miyabi Ichikawa, Koichi Tanigawa, Seigow Matsuoka, and Jun Morinaga in Japanese, text by W. Eugene Smith in Japanese and English, design by Kohei Sugiura and Hitoshi Suzuki, occasional light dust speckle marks spotted out by hand by Motomura; grey cloth-covered boards, titles stamped in white on spine and sides, publisher's photo-illustrated paper-covered board slipcase, minor wear to extremities, original shipping carton with staining to one side, fine; [170]pp (incl. 20 folding).

Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s pp218-21; The Japanese Photobook 1912-1990 48.