Ishimoto: Lines and Bodies presents Yasuhiro Ishimoto's (1921–2012) emblematic series, combining the formal approach of Chicago's New Bauhaus with the essence of Japanese aesthetics. This monograph offers a rediscovery of a photographer who published little during his lifetime. His distinctive vision and approach to motifs, sometimes extending into abstraction, made him a key artistic figure who transformed Japan's photographic scene in the 1960s. Conceived in close collaboration with the Ishimoto Yasuhiro Photo Center, the book accompanies the exhibition of the same name at LE BAL, curated by Diane Dufour with Mei Asakura, director of the archives.
 
Widely regarded as an outsider by his peers, Ishimoto brought a formalist perspective to Japanese photography. Street scenes, portraits of children dressed for Halloween, billboards and building façades in working-class neighbourhoods reveal his mastery of framing and sensitivity to textures and patterns.
 
Four foldouts punctuate the publication, presenting iconic series including Chicago, Beach, where bathers' legs form an endless graphic composition, and Kyoto, Katsura, one of Ishimoto's most emblematic bodies of work, capturing the Japanese villa's refined structure, gardens and stone paths.
 
Focusing on the first decades of his work, the book includes an introduction by Diane Dufour and three critical essays examining the artist's influence in the different places with which he was connected.