For more than a decade, most of Fukase Masahisa’s photographs obsessively focused on his second wife and muse, Yōko. When Fukase faced the irreparable breakdown of his marriage in the mid 1970s, he fled to his homeland in the north of Japan and embarked on a series of images of ravens that explored his feelings of loneliness and grief. The MFA has acquired two photographs from this haunting series, including this signature image, which was printed on the cover of a photo book that accompanied the project.

Gelatin silver print.

Charles Bain Hoyt Fund. © Masahisa Fukase Archives.

2023.396