shashasha

Hanayo has been traveling between Tokyo and Berlin for the past 10 years, and the photos in "MAGMA" were shot in both of those places. Her photographs value a clarity of feeling rather than technique: in one photo we see a young child running around a room with a box over his or her head, and even though the photograph is blurred, we can make a good guess about why this photo is important enough to publish. The light in Hanayo's photos sometimes overpowers or distorts her images, but she's able to use this distortion as an atmospheric effect, which can heighten the emotional power of what she's showing the viewer. Certain people appear throughout the book, and while their relations are not always entirely clear, her young daughter seems to be the focal point, appearing in a number of photographs and indeed on the cover as well. This human connection keeps the book grounded as it sometimes approaches the abstract. "MAGMA" is sometimes vague, but there are enough casually observed moments of beauty here to satisfy anyone.