The Dr. Ikkaku Ochi Collection: Medical Photographs from Japan Around 1900

by Ikkaku Ochi, Wilhelm Gloeden, Pierre Molinier

In an inconspicuous wooden box that had long gone unopened, Akimitsu Naruyama discovered 365 photographs of people with congenital and pathological deformations. After looking at just a few pictures, the Japanese art dealer and collector knew that he had discovered an extraordinary collection of photographs. ~A doctor and photography enthusiast, Ikkaku Ochi practiced his profession in Okayama, a prefecture of Shikoku, one of Japan's southern islands. He had his patients photographed during the last decade of the 19th century, producing images that are strikingly distinct from contemporary medical photographs, which serve as mere educational material and rarely as sensitive portraits of the diseased. Ochi's patients were recorded with dignity and respect, though the exposed, diseased parts of their bodies are explicitly documented and not for the squeamish. Individual photographs reveal the physical manifestations of syphilis in its final stages, elephantiasis of the testes or breasts, and other medical conditions--conditions that today are almost completely suppressed by medication or vaccination.~Cruel and melancholic, these photographs seen today possess an undeniable elegance and uncomfortable beauty, qualities that Akimitsu Naruyama recognized immediately when he opened that forgotten wooden box. Edited by Akimitsu Naruyama. Hardcover, 11 x 12 in./300 pgs / 0 color 0 BW0 duotone 185 Tritone~ Item D20312

Genres: Photography, Japan, Nonfiction, Medicine, Medical

Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of some truly stunning photographs. It hurts to look at the deformities and the obvious pain the photographic subjects were in. It's not possible to see these kind of medical conditions anymore, at least in the first world, because problems get treated long before they get this bad. For people interested in this topic, this is a good book to "read" but only if you have a strong stomach.

[Walid · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can see where lynch got his inspiration from.