shashasha

“This is my reality.”

A surreal narrative experience created through the possibilities of the photobook

“I have the same dream.”

Kosuke Okahara’s “Blue Affair” is inspired by dreams infiltrated by the artist’s memories in the Okinawan town of Koza. By combining photographs taken in Koza with narrative text, Okahara’s photobook mixes genres, media, and even reality and dreams.

“I find myself on a beach.
A woman walks into the dark water, but I am not stopping her.”

Like dreams, “Blue Affair” follows an unfolding story but never loses its interest in single, momentary images in favor of the story. Everything proceeds through a strange motivation to see the next picture, the next raw impression or memory.

“I have the same dream.”

“[H]e spent the time to connect with Koza as well as to gain the trust of the people there. Only then, I am quite sure, he photographed without hesitation. The closer he got to them the more he saw and received their tiny flashes of life and humanity, tiny flashes that are only privy to be seen by trusted persons. His photographs confront us with the existence of the people of Koza. They are proof that he was allowed to be close to their truth and be a part of their dream.”
(from creative director Tatsuya Ishikawa’s afterword)

All text included in Japanese and English.