Japanese Photobooks

• Benrido 2023
• Set of 6 prints
• New

Chieko Shiraishi’s 'Shimakage' is literally translated as ‘Island Shadow’ and this work brings together varying images taken from Japan’s surrounding islands and coastal areas. These images are an old retouching technique known as ‘Zokin-gake’ which was previously popular amongst amateur photographers in Japan during the 1920s and 30s. As a result, the images beautifully evoke a faded memory, the landscapes appear and disappear within the image from the photographers own memory, standing as faint silhouettes against the backdrop of an obscured memory.

• Dashwood/Session Press 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition,424p
  
• New

With the publication of his serialized photo-essay Hikari to Kage (Light and Shadow) in the first issues of the magazine, Shashin Jidai, Daido Moriyama announced his return to photography after nearly a decade. Moriyama had been mired in an acute creative slump from his mid thirties, since the publication of his seminal book, Shashin yo Sayonara (Farewell Photography) in 1972.  Unable to take nearly any photos for a prolonged period, he turned to illicit drugs, ultimately wasting away to little more than 40 kgs before he hit physical and emotional rock bottom.  Lured back by Akira Hasegawa, Shashin Jidai’s editor, he was invited to contribute photographs for each issue.  This began a long relationship between Moriyama and Shashin Jidai.  He would ultimately make a total of six serialized essays that appeared through sixty-three issues (in every issue but one) until its’ demise in April 1988.  During this period Moriyama worked almost exclusively for Shasin Jidai and was given a free hand to explore and experiment and in the process evolved a new aesthetic that still informs his photography today.  Tragically, more than eighty percent of his negatives were lost from this pivotal body of work.  In Daido Moriyama Shashin Jidai 1981–1988 the complete run of essays or chapters that appeared concurrently in Shashin Jidai are brought together for the first time, representing the only way to appreciate them without acquiring the original magazines themselves.  Each complete essay is reproduced alongside a selected portfolio of images and written essays by Moriyama from each chapter as they appeared in the original magazines.  Text appears in Japanese with English translation.

In over 400 pages it provides access to a pivotal period in the evolution of one of the most revered and influential photographers of the twentieth century, as yet undocumented in book-form. 

Accompanying there is a short essay “The Photo Age: Daido Moriyama and Shashin Jidai” by Kotaro Iizawa. Translation throughout by Daniel González, Essays by Daido Moriyama, Text by Kotaro Iizawa, Design by Geoff Han, Editing by David Strettell and Miwa Susuda.

Softcover with poster.

• Akio Nagasawa 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition, 72p
• New

A collection of works featuring stray cats that Daido Moriyama has encountered on the streets.

Signed and numbered edition of 350 copies with a silkscreen printed canvas cover.

Due in stock mid-December, available for pre-order now.

• Getsuyosha 2023
• Softcover, 316p
• New

Newly designed and formatted edition of Moriyama's classic 1972 Farewell Photography, which maintains the original format of images across the gutter, and reading from right to left.

257 x 182mm.

Signed copy.  

• Blue Lotus Edition / Photo Editions 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition, 100p
• New

Yasuhiro Ogawa’s new photobook Into the Silence captures the rugged yet timeless beauty of Japan’s northern region as he follows in the footsteps of the 17th Century poet Matsuo Bashō.

The story of Matsuo Bashō's journey through the northern provinces of Japan in the 17th century, is recounted in his travelogue "The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” ("Oku no Hosomichi”). In the summer of 1689, Bashō set out on his journey with his traveling companion Sora. They traveled on foot, carrying only minimal provisions and staying in humble lodgings along the way. Bashō was seeking inspiration for his poetry, and he found it in the natural beauty and cultural richness of the places he visited.

Like Bashō before him, Ogawa set out on a journey through the Tōhoku region, unlike Bashō, who traveled on foot with pen in hand, Ogawa preferred to move by train with camera in hand.  His photographs capture the rugged beauty of the landscape, from snow-covered mountains to misty forests and along deserted roads with glimpses of wild oceans, often shot through foggy windows on a train in motion. Through his lens, Ogawa reveals a world that is both remote and timeless, a world in stillness and motion.

Despite the passage of centuries, the challenges faced by Bashō on his journey are still evident in Ogawa’s photographs. The loneliness and isolation of the road are palpable in the shots of empty trains, lone tracks or roads and desolate hotel interiors. So are the physical challenges of traversing rough terrain and inclement weather documented in his muted photographs.  There is a marked contrast between the beauty and tranquility of the landscape and the harsh realities of life in this remote region. From plain coastal towns to empty streets, Ogawa’s images reveal the toll that economic decline and depopulation have taken on the area. Yet there remains a sense of hope and resilience.

Signed copy. 

Copies of Into The Silence, with a signed print are available here.

• Blue Lotus Edition / Photo Editions 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition, 100p
• New

Yasuhiro Ogawa’s new photobook Into the Silence captures the rugged yet timeless beauty of Japan’s northern region as he follows in the footsteps of the 17th Century poet Matsuo Bashō.

The story of Matsuo Bashō's journey through the northern provinces of Japan in the 17th century, is recounted in his travelogue "The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” ("Oku no Hosomichi”). In the summer of 1689, Bashō set out on his journey with his traveling companion Sora. They traveled on foot, carrying only minimal provisions and staying in humble lodgings along the way. Bashō was seeking inspiration for his poetry, and he found it in the natural beauty and cultural richness of the places he visited.

Like Bashō before him, Ogawa set out on a journey through the Tōhoku region, unlike Bashō, who traveled on foot with pen in hand, Ogawa preferred to move by train with camera in hand.  His photographs capture the rugged beauty of the landscape, from snow-covered mountains to misty forests and along deserted roads with glimpses of wild oceans, often shot through foggy windows on a train in motion. Through his lens, Ogawa reveals a world that is both remote and timeless, a world in stillness and motion.

Despite the passage of centuries, the challenges faced by Bashō on his journey are still evident in Ogawa’s photographs. The loneliness and isolation of the road are palpable in the shots of empty trains, lone tracks or roads and desolate hotel interiors. So are the physical challenges of traversing rough terrain and inclement weather documented in his muted photographs.  There is a marked contrast between the beauty and tranquility of the landscape and the harsh realities of life in this remote region. From plain coastal towns to empty streets, Ogawa’s images reveal the toll that economic decline and depopulation have taken on the area. Yet there remains a sense of hope and resilience.

Signed copy.

Supplied with a laid-in 7”x 5” signed and stamped archival pigment print (birds image) as shown. Exclusive to Photobookstore.

• Blue Lotus Edition / Photo Editions 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition, 100p
• New

Yasuhiro Ogawa’s new photobook Into the Silence captures the rugged yet timeless beauty of Japan’s northern region as he follows in the footsteps of the 17th Century poet Matsuo Bashō.

The story of Matsuo Bashō's journey through the northern provinces of Japan in the 17th century, is recounted in his travelogue "The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” ("Oku no Hosomichi”). In the summer of 1689, Bashō set out on his journey with his traveling companion Sora. They traveled on foot, carrying only minimal provisions and staying in humble lodgings along the way. Bashō was seeking inspiration for his poetry, and he found it in the natural beauty and cultural richness of the places he visited.

Like Bashō before him, Ogawa set out on a journey through the Tōhoku region, unlike Bashō, who traveled on foot with pen in hand, Ogawa preferred to move by train with camera in hand.  His photographs capture the rugged beauty of the landscape, from snow-covered mountains to misty forests and along deserted roads with glimpses of wild oceans, often shot through foggy windows on a train in motion. Through his lens, Ogawa reveals a world that is both remote and timeless, a world in stillness and motion.

Despite the passage of centuries, the challenges faced by Bashō on his journey are still evident in Ogawa’s photographs. The loneliness and isolation of the road are palpable in the shots of empty trains, lone tracks or roads and desolate hotel interiors. So are the physical challenges of traversing rough terrain and inclement weather documented in his muted photographs.  There is a marked contrast between the beauty and tranquility of the landscape and the harsh realities of life in this remote region. From plain coastal towns to empty streets, Ogawa’s images reveal the toll that economic decline and depopulation have taken on the area. Yet there remains a sense of hope and resilience.

Signed copy.

Supplied with a laid-in 7”x 5” signed and stamped archival pigment print (rain image) as shown.  Exclusive to Photobookstore.

• Blue Lotus Edition / Photo Editions 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition, 100p
• New

Yasuhiro Ogawa’s new photobook Into the Silence captures the rugged yet timeless beauty of Japan’s northern region as he follows in the footsteps of the 17th Century poet Matsuo Bashō.

The story of Matsuo Bashō's journey through the northern provinces of Japan in the 17th century, is recounted in his travelogue "The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” ("Oku no Hosomichi”). In the summer of 1689, Bashō set out on his journey with his traveling companion Sora. They traveled on foot, carrying only minimal provisions and staying in humble lodgings along the way. Bashō was seeking inspiration for his poetry, and he found it in the natural beauty and cultural richness of the places he visited.

Like Bashō before him, Ogawa set out on a journey through the Tōhoku region, unlike Bashō, who traveled on foot with pen in hand, Ogawa preferred to move by train with camera in hand.  His photographs capture the rugged beauty of the landscape, from snow-covered mountains to misty forests and along deserted roads with glimpses of wild oceans, often shot through foggy windows on a train in motion. Through his lens, Ogawa reveals a world that is both remote and timeless, a world in stillness and motion.

Despite the passage of centuries, the challenges faced by Bashō on his journey are still evident in Ogawa’s photographs. The loneliness and isolation of the road are palpable in the shots of empty trains, lone tracks or roads and desolate hotel interiors. So are the physical challenges of traversing rough terrain and inclement weather documented in his muted photographs.  There is a marked contrast between the beauty and tranquility of the landscape and the harsh realities of life in this remote region. From plain coastal towns to empty streets, Ogawa’s images reveal the toll that economic decline and depopulation have taken on the area. Yet there remains a sense of hope and resilience.

Signed copy.

Supplied with a laid-in 7”x 5” signed and stamped archival pigment print (cat image) as shown. Exclusive to Photobookstore.

• Nazraeli 2007
• Softcover, 1st edition, 400p
• New

"In Spring, I am going to go to Hawaii to photograph. I'm so excited, and a little anxious - I've never been there before. The idea of Hawaii has been stuck in my mind for many, many years, just as the idea of a place. I try to imagine what it's like, and I have a certain image of it - a nostalgic place, a place where time has stopped. When I get there, I'll probably find out it's nothing like that. . . ." - Daido Moriyama, 2004

Three years and five trips later, Daido Moriyama created a book of photographs of what he did find in Hawaii.

1st Nazraeli edition of 500 copies, unsigned.

• Akio Nagasawa 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition, 132p
• New"Even now that it’s the end of August, it’s still quite hot outside.

• Nitesha 2023
  
• Softcover, reprinted edition
  
• New
  

Provoke was first published in November 1968 as a dojin-shi, or self-published magazine. It was originally conceived by art critic Koji Taki (1928-2011) and photographer Takuma Nakahira (1938-2015), with poet Takahiko Okada (1939-1997) and photographer Yutaka Takanashi as dojin members. The subtitle for the magazine was “Provocative Materials for Thought”, and each issue was composed of photographs, essays and poems. After releasing the second and third issue with Daido Moriyama as a subsequent member, the group broke up with their last publication First, Abandon the World of Pseudo-Certainty - an overview edition of the three issues. Provoke’s grainy, blurry, and out-of-focus photographs were initially ridiculed as are-bure-boke and stirred a great deal of controversy, yet it had created a strong impact inside and outside of the photography world during that time. However, today, Provoke has become an extremely rare book and very few people have seen the original.

Published as part of The Japanese Box: Facsimile Reprint of Six Rare Photographic Publications of the Provoke Era*, Provoke's facsimile reprint has its photographic images cropped approximately 3 mm from the edges for bookbinding purposes. The reprint also does not include texts by Takahiko Okada due to copyright reasons. Provoke Complete Reprint by NITESHA maintains the original size of the images and includes all original texts, along with the ones by Takahiko Okada. In addition, the volumes will be accompanied by complete English and Chinese translations of the original Japanese texts as a booklet.

2023 printing.

• Sokyusha 2023
  
• Hardback, 1st  edition
• New

A rare time capsule from the 1980s

The story of Daido Moriyama’s photobook “1980s Remnants” begins in 1987, when Moriyama handed Michitaka Ota (of photobook publisher Sokyusha) a box filled with one thousand of his photographs. Some photos from the box were published in “A Journey to Nakaji” later that year and, more than ten years later, in the 1999 photobook “Dreams of Water.” Moriyama insisted that Ota keep the box of photographs, and so they stayed in a corner of Ota’s apartment. A recent conversation brought the box back to mind, and finally, writes Ota, “I was pleased to find that I now can give them some shape.”

Even though the more than 30 years that have passed between the creation of these photographs and their eventual publication becomes part of their charm and magic, these 1980s Moriyama snapshots – of streets and textures and the beauty of urban chaos and, somewhat atypically, plants and floral wildlife – remain fascinating in their own right.

Edition of 300 copies.

• Benrido 2023
• Set of 6 colour collotype prints
• New

• Osiris 2023
  
• Hardback, 1st edition, 120p
• New

“Dawn in Spring” brings back the earliest works of Japanese photographer Asako Narahashi.　Originally shot in 1989, a decisive period not only for the then-unknown artist, Narahashi exhibited the images from her “Dawn in Spring” series four separate times throughout the year. Including previously unshown images, this book represents the first time her series is made available in print.

After taking part in Daido Moriyama’s “FotoSession” workshop in the mid-80s, 1989 was the year her time as a university student would end. With an undecided future ahead of her, Narahashi travelled through Japan – Kumamoto, Miyakejima, Hakata, Yokohama, Hachinohe, Yuzawa, Tokyo… – and inadvertently laid the foundation for her photographic career. Despite the long time between these photographs and her breakthrough in the latter half of the 90s, the black-and-white images in “Dawn of Spring” already reveal the acute sensibilities of this exceptional artist.

“Dawn in Spring. I can’t for the life of me remember how I arrived at this title. Perhaps because it happened to be spring; maybe the words were already resting at the tip of my tongue and just felt right to me. I had no real idea where to travel or what to photograph. I think I simply let the flow, the momentum, my encounters and my desire to escape decide it all … Having come face to face with my contact prints, negatives and 8x10s after all these years, I realized once again that this is where it all began for me.”
― from Asako Narahashi’s artist statement

• the(M) éditions / IBASHO 2023
• Softcover, 3rd edition, 126pp
• New

'In so it goes, Miho Kajioka is presenting work which relates to the concept of time, memory and location. Like in her earlier works, the series consists of intuitive images of fragments of her daily life, from various periods and against changing backdrops. Miho Kajioka regards herself more as a painter/drawer than as a photographer. She feels that photographic techniques help her to create works that fully express her artistic vision.'

The original limited edition received the prestigious 'Prix Nadar' award in 2019. 
this third edition, 'so it goes, so it goes, so it goes' stands apart from its two predecessors, with not only a unique new cover but also some fresh content, including Kajioka's new colour images.

Last few copies.

• Libraryman 2023
• Hardback, 1st edition
• New

Staged on a farm in rural Japan, externaling Higashikawa in Hokkaido, Osamu Yokonami’s (b. 1967, Japanese) images demonstrate his particular use of photography as an artistic medium. Working with straightforward camera angles, Yokonami transforms ordinary bodies, farming tools and the local produce into haunting images—unexpectedly absurd and familiar. Headless figures, an aubergine-masked face, an abandoned baby on a paper bag, a topless character submissively kneeling in the grass while balancing two large tomatoes on their back. The series suggests a performative and complicit moment between the photographer and the people portrayed. As one feels the vulnerability of the subject facing the lens, one wonders: who is playing who in this image?

The book contains a foreword written by editor and designer Tony Cederteg.

First edition of 1,000 copies.

• RM 2020
• Hardback, 2nd edition
• NEW
  

Born in 1957 in Gamagori, in the Japanese prefecture of Aichi, Yamamoto Masao is a photographer who began his art studies as an oil painter under the supervision of Goro Saito in his hometown. Yamamoto subsequently discovered that photography was the ideal medium for the theme that most interested him: images with the ability to evoke memories.

“Small Things in Silence” offers a perspective on twenty years of the career of one of Japan’s most important photographers. In the words of Yamamoto himself: “I try to capture moments that no one sees and make a photo from them. When I see them in print, a new story begins.”

• IKKI Books 2023
• Hardback, 1st edition
• New

• Akio Nagasawa 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition
• New
  

Yesterday, my daughter drove me and my wife to Kami-Ooka, a town south of Yokohama. We had already been there two weeks earlier, and as I had no business accompanying the ladies on their shopping spree, I spent a little over an hour walking around with my camera, in the area around the station that is crowded with people and tall buildings. Quite naturally, the tour also led me to a place that I always visit, and that I have decided to refer to as my “oasis number three.” On one side of a 50-meter stretch of a narrow alley between the back of a store and the Keihin Kyuko line, there are several juice stands, and sandwiched between them, a number of ashtrays are admirably standing and waiting for smokers like myself. There’s always a bunch of folks, guys and ladies alike, puffing away on their cigarettes as if there was no tomorrow. One of the bars has some concrete steps in front of it that are just right for sitting on, and in that “oasis,” I like to spend some quality time smoking while observing the neighborhood through my pocket camera, and taking the occasional snapshot. There are quite a lot of ladies, and also many blue-collar type guys, and they all come together here for a chat and a puff.

Back home, I found myself alone in the kitchen at night, and while having another cigarette or two, I reviewed the results of my own shooting spree in the alleys of Kami-Ooka. “I guess two or three of them will be alright for Record,” I concluded while thinking about the next issue. I remembered also photographing a long line of people and wondered what they were queueing up for, while lighting another cigarette. Another day in the life of the photographer that I am was casually drawing to an end. And tomorrow, I thought, I’m going to take a stroll around Ofuna.

(Number one and two of my own private oases are places that I carry in my heart, and I won’t tell anyone about them, unless they’re heavy smokers just like me!)

– from the afterword by Daido Moriyama

Signed copy.

• Roshin 2015
• Hardback, 1st edition
• New

Masahisa Fukase and his wife, Yoko, began their new married life moving in to Matsubara-danchi residential complex of Soka, Saitama in 1964. they were soon joined by a Siamese cat named Kabo. A few years later Fukase brought home a black cat that he had picked up on the way home from fishing- a cat which he named Hebo. From then on the couple lived their day-to-day life with these two cats.

This photo collection was made from the the few remaining vintage prints from that the time. The work is joined by another series of photos of a cat named Sasuke which Fukase had special affection for.

Long out of print.  Edition of 800 copies.

• Akio Nagasawa 2023
• Softcover, 1st edition
• New

"Last fall, the photographer William Klein passed away in Paris.

An exhibition of my own and William Klein’s works attracted a large audience when it was shown at London’s Tate Modern back in 2012. Klein’s part of the exhibition was quite a diverse affair, as it featured next to photographs also paintings and films among others. Obviously, it was the highlight of the show. For my own part, with the exception of a few color prints, I mostly covered the walls with enlarged black-and-white photos.
It was about 60 years ago, that I was completely knocked down by the shocking experience that was browsing through the photo book NEW YORK, which inspired me to launch my own life and work as a photographer. With that in mind, when it came to doing that two-man show in London, flooding the place with black-and-white shots was all that I could possibly do in response to Klein’s work.

When he showed up for our first meeting in years, a big man in a big wheelchair, it just so happened naturally that we shook hands. That one moment was enough to fill my heart with emotions, and make me feel like shouting out that, for me, the exhibition had already concluded, even though it had in fact just opened. (...)"

– from the afterword by Daido Moriyama

Signed copy.

• Match & Co 2016
• Hardback, 1st edition
• New

After Dazai and Daido Moriyama: Terayama, the third entry in Match & Company’s literary collaboration series with Daido Moriyama. Photographs by Daido Moriyama are paired with Oda Sakunosuke’s 1946 short-story “At the Horse Races” to pay tribute to one of Japan’s literary treasures.

“For this project, I paired photos of Osaka, taken by Daido Moriyama, with the short story “At the Horse Races”, written by Sakunosuke Oda in 1946, and edited them into this book. […]
I told Moriyama I wanted to create a book that, by pairing them together, would give an entirely new layer of expression to both his photographs of Osaka and the words of Sakunosuke Oda.

My trick to let two artists, each with a strong personality, meet within the space of a book to stimulate each other, has worked.”

• Chose Commune 2022
• Softcover, 1st edition
• New

Mikiko Hara has her own way of secretly capturing the strangers who cross her path: a young man on the train, a couple holding hands, a little girl playing in a park… Sometimes their eyes meet briefly as she presses the shutter, but Mikiko Hara does not exchange with her subjects. Yet, these portraits reveal something infinitely personal, as if the photographer and her subjects were bound by an invisible pact: being in the right place at the right time.

Mikiko Hara’s approach, firmly rooted in a documentation of every- day life, extends in the intimacy of her living space: cut flowers in the sink, a strawberry shortcake in the fridge, her three sons dozing on the floor. The eye of the photographer, who is also a mother and wife, moves back and forth from the outside to the inside, from the public to the private sphere. Wherever she is, Mikiko Hara observes and tells stories like fragments of life.

At the initiative of the publisher – who made the selection in collaboration with the artist – these unpublished photographs from 1996 to 2021 have been assembled in this book, entitled Small Myths.

• Sokyusha / Blue Lotus Editions 2022
• Softcover, 3rd edition
  
• New
  

"The Dreaming contains 86 black and white images selected from my 27 years’ career in photography and traveling. When I turned 50, I decided to go through all the black & white negatives I had taken so far. Every moment of the journeys may have been vision of dreams – that’s what I thought when I tracked down my archive and such a thought gave me a hint to make this book."

- Yasuhiro Ogawa

Signed copy.  3rd edition.

All our copies come with a 6'x4' postcard size inkjet print (signed and stamped)

• AKIO NAGASAWA 2022
• Softcover, 1st edition, 72p
• New

"When I arrived in Sapporo in June, it was so cold that the light purple clusters of lilac in the alleys and under the eaves were trembling in the cold air. While other parts of Japan had entered the rainy season, here the wind just kept blowing for days on end, and the streets and avenues were tinted white instead. Keeping the promise that I had firmly made to myself, I grabbed my camera every morning and took to the streets, with the regularity of an office worker, and no intention to meet any friend or acquaintance. I spent most of these three months on my own. Other than the very basic daily conversations – buying a ticket at the station, ordering a coffee, or making the occasional phone call – I was just keeping my mouth shut. I soon ran out of sleeping pills, and as I didn’t drink, all I could do was spend the long nights reading books. The daily photo shootings weren’t really fruitful, and there I was, sitting in my freezing apartment, at my wit’s end with my progressing mix of depersonalization, aphasia and insomnia. So as, in other words, my lifestyle was from the very onset based on that fawning, illusional idea of escape and isolation, my only justification that was taking photographs, was easily reversed from the true intention that it used to be, to mere pretense. Those days of feeling guilty went by one after another, and before the summer ended, I decided to go back to Tokyo. At the end of the day, I haven’t made any progress whatsoever, but what I do have, as a proof of my endless walks to miscellaneous places, are 250 used rolls of film."

– from the afterword by Daido Moriyama

Signed and numbered edition of 600 copies, with a silkscreen canvas cover.

• Iikki 2022
  
• Hardback, 2nd edition
  
• New
  

Sasanami is the result of a dialog between the photographer Masao Yamamoto and the musician and composer Akira Uchida initiated by IIKKI between October 2019 and August 2020. 

''Sasanami: Sound becomes waves and creates space, where a story is spun that transcends time and space, just like Noh. Something gentle in that space. Its presence is not definite, it simply exists there. I want to share with you the scene of how the individual and the space are connected.''

Hand-numbered 2nd edition of 1000 copies, with a digital download code for the music.  

• Session Press 2022
  
• Softcover, 1st edition, 2nd printing
  
• NEW
  

Session Press’ Red Flower, The Women of Okinawa, published in 2017, was the first US monograph by Okinawan photographer Mao Ishikawa, a highly revered figure in Japan. The release of the second printing in October of this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan in 1972 since its’ occupation by the US after World War II.

Red Flower celebrates the courageous and honest lives of women she met and befriended while working at bars in Koza and Kin that were hang-outs for black soldiers from the local US military bases in Okinawa. The book features several unpublished photographs from artist's first book, ”Hot Days in Camp Hansen" published in 1982. Red Flower is the seminal work of Ishikawa, marking the starting point of her subsequently long career as a photographer. Designed with full-bleed images reproduced in a large format with intense b/w printing which successfully conveys the original lively spirit and tension of Ishikawa’s Camp Hansen work, available once again for wider public appreciation with an essay by the artist.

2nd printing.

• Akio Nagasawa 2022
• Softcover, 1st edition
• New

On the occasion of the publication of volume 50 of the Record journal, my works were shown in a long-term slide show event at the AKIO NAGASAWA Gallery in Ginza, from late May until early October. I visited the venue several times since the start of this program, placed myself in the middle of the 5,000 miscellaneous images that were projected onto every inch of the gallery’s walls by seven projectors, and enjoyed the strange experience of standing there, isolated from daily life, and being hit from all sides by the showers of light. The images that were covering the surrounding walls entirely, were quite certainly slides of my own photographs, but due to the complex, constantly changing entanglement of space and time, the pictures that I looked at nimbly slipped out of my field of vision, and left me feel transformed into a sleepwalker who wanders through far and unknown landscapes.

The strange and chaotic images from Tokyo, Marrakech and New York that were perpetually projected onto the walls, had disconnected from the one who shot them, to pursue the anonymous notion that is supposedly inherent in a photograph. It had become totally irrelevant that I was the one who made them, and before I knew it, the projected images transformed into the very “spirit” that is photography itself.
Witnessing this slide show of my own works was an experience that, even at this point in time, taught me a whole new way of responding to them.

Upon opening the gallery’s door and stepping inside, the visitor was instantly greeted by a curious kind of soundscape.That unfathomable mix of sounds was composed of all sorts of tones that were recorded at various places in the streets, and layered on top of each other. Including the occasional flirtatious moan of a woman, it was a mysterious noise that gradually percolated into the listener’s mind.

– from the afterword by Daido Moriyama

Signed copy.