shashasha

More than just a drink commercial: a captivating portrait of the dazzle of youth

In spring and summer 2017, the Pocari Sweat sports drink ran an advertising campaign featuring 300 high schoolers dancing in perfect, joyous unison. Photographer Yoshiyuki Okuyama followed them over the month of rehearsals leading up to the filming, becoming one with them and immortalizing the exuberant vitality of their moving bodies in images that capture every breath, every pulse of excitement, every burst of energy. “You are more than you ever imagined,” says the Pocari Sweat tagline, and indeed the 123 photographs in this book grab straight at viewers and draw them in to live for themselves the dazzle and possibility of youth.

Here are photos that affirm youth with all their might, through images as direct, powerful, and pure as the soaring blue sky.
― Yoshiyuki Okuyama