shashasha

“Photography” is an 800-page strong anthology that collects 29 series created by Japanese photographer Koji Kitagawa in the past 15 years.
Kitagawa has earned critical attention not only for his work as a member of the SPEW collective (formed together with Daisuke Yokota and Naohiro Utagawa) but for his varied solo series. In 752 images in total, the reader is allowed to follow Kitagawa’s evolvement and experience his undying interest and imagination towards the image in all possible forms.

“My daily life and my work are always tied together, so what’s going on in the work is always a hint to what I'm thinking about as I go along. The sequencing i simportant to an extent. I don’t want there to be any story or artificiality to it; having one correct interpretation isn’t important. Neither are essential for one’s imagination. Imagination is always at the beginning.”
― from Koji Kitagawa’s foreword (included in Japanese & English translation)

“Kitagawa does not grant us access to the world, he confronts us with its opacity, in hopes of seeing in every way possible, at the risk of dissolving the image… Bringing together this work in a single volume makes it possible to traverse this obsessive exploration of the visible, to grasp the movement driving Koji Kitagawa. The book reveals the scope of his ambition, the way in which he grows attached to poor objects yet brings them to incandescence.”
― Nicolaus Giraud (Photographic critic)