essays of the early '70s – especially Natsu no nikki [Summer Journal] of December 1972 and Fuyu no nikki [Winter Journal] of June 1973. Indeed, Fukase's original title for the series was Tonpokuki or "Winter Journal". The photographs of ravens and other rather bleak subjects that constitute Karasu were taken in Hokkaido, Kanazawa, and Tokyo. The project originated as an eight-part series for the magazine Camera Mainichi (1976–82), and these photo essays reveal that Fukase experimented with colour film, multiple exposure printing, and narrative text as part of the development of the Karasu concept. Beginning in 1976, exhibitions based on this new body of work brought Fukase widespread recognition in Japan, and subsequently in Europe and the United States. The book was published in 1986 (by Sōkyūsha) and this original edition of Ravens soon became one of the most respected and sought-after Japanese photobooks of the post-war era. Subsequent editions were published in 1991 (Bedford Arts), 2008 (Rat Hole Gallery), and 2017 (Mack). The heavily autobiographical approach of Karasu has its origins in Fukase's foundational photo essay, "Hyōten" [Freezing Point], of 1961, but it pushes the central themes of isolation and tragedy to new levels of depth and abstraction. Technically, the photographs of ravens were very difficult to achieve, with Fukase having to focus his camera on the small, moving black subjects in almost total darkness. Setting correct exposures was equally challenging. According to Fukase's former assistant, photographer Masato Seto, printing some of the Karasu photographs required complicated burning and dodging. In 1976, at the outset of the project, Fukase stated in Camera Mainichi: "I'm wishing that I could stop this world. This act [of photography] may represent my own revenge play against life, and perhaps that is what I enjoy most." By the project's end in 1982, Fukase wrote enigmatically that he had "become a raven". In 2010, a panel of five experts (Gerry Badger, Ute Eskilden, Chris Killip, Jeffrey Ladd, and Yōko Sawada) convened by the British Journal of Photography selected Karasu as the best photobook of 1986–2009. 1992 accident and Bukubuku In 1992 Fukase suffered traumatic brain injury from a fall down the steep steps of his favourite bar--'Nami'--in the "Golden Gai" area of Shinjuku, Tokyo, and this left him incapacitated. Earlier that year Miyako Ishiuchi had photographed Fukase nude for her book Chromosome XY (1995). Some of the images from that session were published in the