?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
WERNER BISCHOF (1916-1954) Courtyard of the Meiji Shrine, Tokyo, Japan. Silver print, the image measuring 9¾x11¾ inches (24.8x29.8 cm.), with Bischof's credit stamp and numeric notations in pencil on verso. 1951
Provenance: Acquired in 1960 by the editor of the Bantam edition, New York
"Priests of the modern Meiji Temple, which was built to honor the emperor who opened Japan to Western influence. Wearing ancient robes and headdresses, they have been to open the temple gates to members of the Imperial Family, who are to be honored on the occasion of Meiji's anniversary celebrations." - Werner Bischof and Robert Guillain, Japan (Simon & Schuster, 1954)
In the summer of 1951, Werner Bischof was assigned to photograph the war in Korea. The journey took him to Japan, where American soldiers were sent on leave. Japan captivated him and after completing his assignment in Korea, he devoted a year to pursue his own aesthetic research on capturing Japan's incommensurable beauty, but also fascinating ability in skillfully oscillating between traditional preservation and modernized ways of live. This iconic picture was taken in the winter of 1951 on a snowy day while Bischof was visiting the garden of the Meiji Shrine.
Bischof died tragically in a road accident in the Andes on May 16, 1954, where he was engaged in making a film. His photographs of Japan were posthumously published in a book entitled Japan, 1954 written by Robert Guillain, a French journalist, and later in a paperbound edition by Magnum. It was the first-ever book of photography to be awarded the prestigious Prix Nadar in 1955.
