shashasha

This extra issue in Ryoji Akiyama’s “Dear Old Days” series focuses on the many meaningful encounters that emerged as a result of the series.

In the early 1980s, Ryoji Akiyama traveled to China – then yet to emerge as one of the world’s leading powers – and photographed the children he met in various parts of the country. The 2019 re-release of his 1982 photobook was a sensational hit in China and lead to two follow-up photobooks.

“Special Issue: Encounter” features 49 previously unreleased photographs from the 1980s, with most of the children showing an awareness of the camera’s presence. Additionally, the book features several longer interviews which chronicle the encounters that happened after the book’s publication, beginning with the large online project to find the now grown-up children depicted in the original book as well as Akiyama’s reunion with them or Akiyama’s meeting with the art director with whom he visited China more than thirty years.

Please note that all text is only included in Japanese and Chinese language.