shashasha

Since 2005, Kazuo Kitai has been publishing a short photo essay in each month's Nippon Camera magazine entitled "Walking with Leica" where he presents short records of a typical Japanese activity -- the photo walk. The present volume collects photos from the essays published in 2005 and 2006. Kitai writes in the afterword (Japanese only) that after passing the age of 60, he started to feel awkward about shooting far from home. Turning his age into an asset, he realizes that he could now see things that he couldn't see when he was younger, and he forced himself to take walks around the neighborhood which he has lived in for over 30 years. Says Kitai (roughly translated): "Carrying my old Barnack-style Leica with its collapsible lens, I walk where my walks take me, back and forth between the past and present. Today too I will go for a walk. In this time when digital is becoming the norm, I feel like wanting to reverse scientific progress by using my old camera and lens. Playing this adversarial role is one of my enjoyments."