Takuma Nakahira — Adieu à X, 1989 First Edition, First Printing

Takuma Nakahira — Adieu à X (アデュウ ア エックス), 1989 First Edition, First Printing

Adieu à X is one of the most significant and sought-after photobooks by Takuma Nakahira (中平卓馬), one of the towering figures of Japanese photography and a founding member of the legendary Provoke movement. Published in 1989 by Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Tokyo, this work marked a pivotal moment in Nakahira's career — a return to photography after years of silence following his memory loss in 1977, and a radical rethinking of what the photographic image could be.

The book presents large-format, intensely physical images of nature — water, birds, vegetation — shot with an almost violent directness. Far from the grainy abstraction of Provoke, Adieu à X confronts the viewer with the raw materiality of the world. It remains one of the essential texts of Japanese photobook history and is increasingly difficult to find in first printing.

• Author: Takuma Nakahira (中平卓馬)
• Title: Adieu à X / アデウ ア エックス
• Year: 1989
• Edition: First Edition, First Printing
• Publisher: Kawade Shobo Shinsha (河出書房新社), Tokyo
• ISBN: 4-309-26111-6
• Language: Japanese

Condition: Very Good — A well-preserved first printing. Covers clean with light age toning consistent with a 35-year-old paperback. Spine firm. Interior pages and photographs clean and bright. A solid copy of this increasingly scarce title.