Tofu-Knife by Kohei Kawatani

Tofu-Knife by Kohei Kawatani is a brilliant exploration of the complex relationship between the artistic and commercial in contemporary photography. In its form and design, the photobook mimics both a scientific database – all photographs are clearly listed in the index and cataloged by numbers – and a customer magazine – the photographs are clean and polished, printed on a thin, glossy paper usually used in the advertising context. The depicted objects and environments are above all visually pleasing – lush vegetation, subtle textures, neat interiors, and alluring objects whose only decipherable function is the aesthetic one. Deliberate decontextualization reduces the images to ready-made objects, as well as foregrounding them the fluidity of their meaning, and susceptibility to various creative interpretations. Even though Kawatani’s visual expression is decisive and sharp like a (tofu) knife, his photographs are only seemingly impersonal – his unexpected framing, attention to detail, and suggestive use of color hint not only at subjectivity but a certain delicacy, tenderness, and softness (similar, in a way, to tofu itself).”

— Barbara Gregov, Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb.

Softcover
104 pages
156 x 230 mm
Color
Limited edition of 500 copies
2021

First prize of the Kassel Dummy Award 2020
Charlotte Cotton (Curator, Editor) prize of the JAPAN PHOTO AWARD 2019

Published by MASA