Book review: Hamaya, H., Yamamoto, K., Keller, J., Maddox, A., Iizawa, K., Kaneko, R., Reynolds, J. and Berland, D. (2013). Japan's modern divide: The photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto. Los Angeles, California: J. Paul Getty Museum.

Japan's modern divide presents the work of two photographers with differing techniques and objectives - one documentary, the other experimental art - practicing in a period when photographers were struggling to throw off the romantic, painterly style of pictorialism and define a new way forward for photographic practice.  Stuck at the literal edge of the world and reliant on ocean transport, Japan often lagged behind Europe and NA, where photographers had grappled with these issues many years earlier.  This period in Japan represented a brief flowering before the country's military ambitions resulted in persecution and cooptation of the country's arts communities.

The book's presentation is split evenly between Hamaya and Yamamoto, with approximately 100 pages of 50 plates and two essays devoted to each.  The opening essay presents both photographers in historical context.