PROVOKE AS A COLLECTIVE PRACTICE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC REALISM by TRISTAN IGNAS-MENZIES B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2014 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Art History, Visual Art & Theory) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2016 © Tristan Ignas-Menzies, 2016 Abstract Comprised of the critic Taki Kōji, poet Okada Takahiko, and photographers Nakahira Takuma, Takanashi Yutaka, and Moriyama Daido (who joined with the publication of the second issue), the photographic journal Provoke ran for three issues between 1968 and 1969. My thesis considers Provoke in terms of its status as a physical and commercial object within the socio-economic context of late 1960s Japan so as to offer a perspective into the collaborative endeavour represented by the journal as a whole. I argue that Provoke attempted to mobilize photography’s documentary potential in the face of the abstract conditions of Japan’s modern capitalist society. This was operationalized as a mode of photographic realism whose access to reality was a function of the journal’s collective form. The necessity for a specifically collective engagement with reality was articulated via the group’s engagement with Marxist theory: in the writings its members contributed to the journal they argued that the subjective alienation characterizing Japan’s capitalist modernity had rendered invisible the individual’s relation to the social whole. ii Preface This thesis is original, unpublished work by the author, Tristan Ignas-Menzies. iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................ ii Preface .............................................................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Provoke 1, Summer 1968 ............................................................................................ 15 Chapter Two: Provoke 2, Eros ............................................................................................................... 40 Chapter Three: Provoke 3 ........................................................................................................................ 58 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 80 Figures .............................................................................................................................................................. 84 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 89 iv List of Figures Figure 1.1 Provoke 1 (November 1968), cover ......................................................................... 84 Figure 1.2 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1968 ............................................................................. 84 Figure 1.3 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1968 ............................................................................. 84 Figure 1.4 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled (Shinjuku), 1968 ...................................................... 84 Figure 1.5 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1968 ............................................................................. 84 Figure 1.6 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled (Nakahira’s Wife and Sister at the Beach), 1968 .................................................................................................................................................................... 84 Figure 1.7 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled (Fashion Show), 1968 ........................................... 84 Figure 1.8 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1968 ............................................................................. 84 Figure 1.9 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled (Hokkaidō), 1968 .................................................... 84 Figure 1.10 Advertisement for Neopan Film featuring Takanashi Yutaka, 1973 ......... 84 Figure 1.11 Taki Kōji, Untitled (Mikasa Coalmine, Hokkaidō), 1968 ................................. 84 Figure 1.12 Taki Kōji, Untitled (Mikasa Coalmine, Hokkaidō), 1968 ................................. 84 Figure 1.13 Taki Kōji, Untitled (San-Ichi Publishing Company), 1968 .............................. 84 Figure 2.1 Provoke 2 (March 1969), cover .................................................................................. 85 Figure 2.2 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 85 Figure 2.3 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 85 Figure 2.4 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 85 Figure 2.5 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 85 Figure 2.6 Moriyama Daido, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................... 85 Figure 2.7 Moriyama Daido, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................... 85 Figure 2.8 Moriyama Daido, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................... 85 v Figure 2.9 Moriyama Daido, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................... 85 Figure 2.10 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 85 Figure 2.11 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 85 Figure 2.12 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 85 Figure 2.13 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................................... 85 Figure 2.14 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................................... 85 Figure 2.15 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................................... 85 Figure 2.16 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969, Detail ................................................................................. 86 Figure 2.17 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 .............................................................................................. 86 Figure 3.1 Provoke 3 (August 1969), cover ................................................................................ 87 Figure 3.2 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.3 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.4 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.5 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.6 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.7 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.8 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.9 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.10 Nakahira Takuma, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.11 Takanashi Yutaka, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................. 87 Figure 3.12 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................................... 87 Figure 3.13 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................................... 87 Figure 3.14 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................................... 87 vi Figure 3.15 Taki Kōji, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................................... 87 Figure 3.16 Moriyama Daido, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................... 88 Figure 3.17 Moriyama Daido, Untitled, 1969 ............................................................................... 88 Figure 3.18 Moriyama Daido, Untitled, 1969 ..............................................................................