WATANABE, Sumiharu. The Face of Washington Square.

(Tokyo): Hashimoto Yuyudo, 1965. First edition. Hardcover. 26.5 × 18.5 cm. [204] pages. A scarce and remarkable Japanese photobook documenting Greenwich Village and Washington Square Park in New York during the early 1960s. Sumiharu Watanabe (b. 1928) was working for Nikon in New York between 1962 and 1964 when he began photographing the life surrounding Washington Square. His camera records the extraordinary mixture of bohemian, Beat and everyday life that characterised the Village at the time: musicians, chess players, street performers, cafés and restaurants, demonstrations, lovers, children, shopkeepers and the crowds gathering around the park. The photographs, generally printed full-bleed, move chronologically through the seasons, producing an unusually intimate and lyrical portrait of Greenwich Village rather than a conventional urban or documentary study. The work is notable for its direct, unforced observation and for Watanabe’s perspective as a Japanese photographer encountering New York during a period of profound cultural change. The book was designed by Nobuyoshi Kikuchi, with text by the poet and contemporary-music critic Kuniharu Akiyama. One of the earliest and most distinctive Japanese photographic books devoted to New York, and an important photographic document of 1960s Greenwich Village. Watanabe was one of relatively few Japanese photographers to travel to the United States and photograph American life during this period. A very good plus copy in photo-illustrated wrappers with obi and printed card slipcase present. Deserved of a far wider recognition.