An Island of Vacuum: Taiwan 1971–1978

First Edition, 2000. 83 pages. 

Book measures 10 x 10 inches. Hardcover in dust jacket with obi. SIGNED by Akio Ohki on the front endpaper. A very clean copy in crisp binding. Near Fine in clean bright Near Fine dust jacket.

An Island of Vacuum: Taiwan 1971–1978 was produced in 2000 in conjunction with the photo exhibition Vacuum Island Taiwan (Fukuoka Asian Art Museum). The Kuomintang, which came from mainland China, established a one-party system in Taiwan and promulgated martial law in 1949 to suppress dissidents (lifted in 1987). In the 1970s, Taiwan was shaken internationally and politically by the international and political turmoil of the world, and Oki’s photographs of its daily life, people, street corners, festivals, and more were captured in deep monochrome contrast. As Ryu Hsiu-mi writes at the beginning of the book, “It seems almost miraculous that I was able to capture Taiwan in this era,” these photographs can also be considered valuable records taken under difficult circumstances. On the occasion of the exhibition in Fukuoka, Oki wrote, “The lives of the people there overlapped with the postwar Fukagawa where I was born, and it felt so warm and strong. The faint light in the darkness of Taiwan at that time felt as intense as the radiance of the sun, and my Fukagawa at that time were all different, yet all the same.”