Mao Ishikawa: Red Flower, The Women of Okinawa

 

Session Press’ Red Flower, The Women of Okinawa, published in 2017, was the first US monograph by Okinawan photographer Mao Ishikawa, a highly revered figure in Japan. The release of the second printing in September 2022 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan in 1972 since its’ occupation by the US after World War II. Red Flower celebrates the courageous and honest lives of women she met and befriended while working at bars in Koza and Kin that were hang-outs for black soldiers from the local US military bases in Okinawa. The book features several unpublished photographs from artist's first book, ”Hot Days in Camp Hansen" published in 1982. Red Flower is the seminal work of Ishikawa, marking the starting point of her subsequently long career as a photographer. Designed with full-bleed images reproduced in a large format with intense b/w printing which successfully conveys the original lively spirit and tension of Ishikawa’s Camp Hansen work, available once again for wider public appreciation with an essay by the artist

Title: Red Flower, The Women of Okinawa
Publisher: Session Press, 2017, 2nd printing 2022
Photographers: Mao Ishikawa
Author: Text by Mao Ishikawa
Graphic Design: Studio Lin, NYC
Format: Softcover
Size: 23 x 33 cm, 112 pages