Views from Japan

Most collectors have their own unique attractions and approaches to the objects of their collecting. This volume features the adventures of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, two renowned filmmakers--with such writing credits as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the original Star Wars and Mission Impossible--who began collecting Japanese photography more than a decade ago, and whose ongoing hunt seems indeed like a Hollywood movie.

Since 2002, the Huycks have assembled an encyclopedic collection of images from the 19th century to the present, acquiring works by Nobuyoshi Araki, Hiroshi Hamaya, Eikoh Hosoe, Miyako Ishiuchi, Kikuji Kawada, Daido Moriyama, Ikko Narahara, Issei Suda, Shomei Tomatsu and Shoji Ueda.

A record of their love of Japanese photography and their experiences collecting it, Views of Japan makes available a selection of rare masterpieces from their extensive collection, along with a personal “script” recounting how they scouted, debated, selected and ultimately acquired many of the works. This was no small undertaking, considering the rarity of some of the images gathered in this volume--particularly those taken before the 1970s.

The Huycks’ collection was shaped into Views of Japan by Manfred Heiting, a designer and editor of photo publications including extensive surveys of German, Soviet and Japanese photobooks. The resulting volume is a distinctly personal presentation of one of the greatest private collections of Japanese photography in the world, and an accessible look at a practice long ignored by Western histories of photography.