shashasha

Issei Suda created the series “Family Diary” between 1991 and 1992, when he was captivated by the Minox LX, a small camera commonly used for espionage. Having used the camera for different themes and series at first, Suda began to use it to photograph his own family—his wife and daughter—in his everyday life. The small, unobtrusive appearance of the camera and Suda’s singular photographic sense result in a diary-like series that is unrivaled in its combination of creativity, intimacy and artistic sensibilities.
This photobook is the first time the whole “Family Diary” series has been published.

“My act of observation was simple, flipping through the calendar pages of an unremarkable day-to-day; but as I peered into the workings of my own private life, I acted as a member of the family while remaining an outsider.
I tend to think of photography as the centre of my life; and alongside it, the time spent with my family carries on. The Minox prints appear before me, with a rough, grainy texture that seems to banish these times into the past. My family, standing before my eyes, already begins to fade away.”
― from Issei Suda’s statement from 1993 (included as an afterword in Japanese, English and French translation)