ADORE (VOL.2) - KENJI WAKASUGI PHOTO BOOK

Limited Edition of  only 800 with signed certificate (# 89 of 800)

It was January 1985, Tokyo – Madonna’s first visit to Japan to promote the ‘Like a Virgin’ album. Photographer Kenji Wakasugi was allotted 45 minutes for a photo session commissioned by Playboy Weekly Excite. In the studio there was one flash unit and one pink sofa, nothing else. Loaded with a mesh of now iconic references from early Gaultier and Westwood, to the Healthy Swimmer T-shirt and Boy Toy belt-buckle, the Takara Kronoform robot watch, to Maripol’s layered rubber and crucifix jewellery – time has done nothing to diminish the potency of these photographs.

The opening and closing pages of ADORE offer a further insight into Kenji’s 80s nocturnal world. A myriad of street neon’s and bustling commuters but amongst all the noise are Kenji’s beautifully serene interiors. These delicate Japanese motifs of flowers, birds, even an eclipse, punctuate the chaos. This paradoxical meeting of culture and nature is central to all Kenji’s subsequent work as a serious artist.

ADORE Volume 2 is the complete overview of the session – 200 pages include 324 frames, 10 contact sheets, together with 114 large format black and white portraits. This selection of images is entirely different from Volume 1 – apart from the car sequence, which contains 4 alternate selects. Furthermore, the design of this art-book pays homage to Japanese 80s minimalism. The canary yellow cover features only the title ADORE debossed in ebony lettering. Madonna’s name is foiled in Japanese text on the accompanying neon pink bellyband (hand sewn) – the idea being that the book itself becomes an object of beauty.

Includes the blue bellyband, together with signed and numbered certificate by Kenji Wakasugi.

Published November 2021 by NJG.

Strictly 800 Limited Edition

Size 205mm x 330mm

Cover Bound in canary yellow, foiled with de-bossed ebony lettering. The accompanying blue bellyband is hand sewn and foiled with ebony lettering.

Pages 200

Images 324 frames, 10 contact sheets, 114 large format black and white portraits, with the inclusion of 18 exterior and interior images shot in Tokyo.

In new condition