Silver Gelatin Print, Untitled #4, 1981. Silver gelatin print, printed by the artist. 40 × 50 cm (image); 50 × 60 cm (sheet).
Lot 008 · Photography
Silver Gelatin Print, Untitled #4
Hiroshi Nakamura
Year
1981
Medium
Silver gelatin print, printed by the artist
Dimensions
40 × 50 cm (image); 50 × 60 cm (sheet)
Estimate
NZD 3,800–5,500
Untitled #4 is among the most formally resolved works in Nakamura's series — a study in the geometry of shadow and light on a rain-wet pavement in Shinjuku. The composition is almost abstract: a diagonal of reflected neon, a rectangle of darkness, the suggestion of a figure at the upper right edge. The print quality is exceptional, with a full tonal range from deep, luminous blacks to delicate highlights. The paper retains its original surface sheen. Nakamura signed and dated the print in pencil on the verso.
Artist
Hiroshi Nakamura
Hiroshi Nakamura (1944–2018) was a Japanese photographer who worked in the tradition of post-war Japanese documentary photography before developing a more personal, contemplative practice in the late 1970s. His Untitled series, begun in 1979 and comprising forty-seven prints, was made in the streets of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto over a period of six years. Nakamura printed all works himself in his darkroom in Shinjuku, and each print is unique — he did not make editions. The series was exhibited once in his lifetime, at the Photographers' Gallery in London in 1984, and was largely unknown until a retrospective at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2016.