Some people love, collect, and cherish photography books. My interest in them has always been slight, except for a small few. The Map (1965) by Kawada Kikuji, was recently added to that list of the small few. It is a reconciling, or not even a reconciling as much as an elegy, of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. There were collaborators on the book: Kikuji was the photographer, but the poetry and design were done by a few other Japanese artists.

The irony is never slight in cases where beauty arises from the harrowing.

photo: from, The Map, by Kawada Kikuji 1965

photo: from, The Map, by Kawada Kikuji 1965

photo: from, The Map, by Kawada Kikuji 1965