shashasha

Yoshio Mizoguchi’s photobook “Days of Smelling Like Grass,” his second photobook publication, takes us into a black-and-white world of Japan that is charged with erotic energy and innocence, where sexuality seems ever-present in daily life, revealing itself suddenly and momentarily.

Through a combination of snapshots and staged images, Mizoguchi shows us places and people – vibrant, recurrent, yet ephemeral scenes, like the smell of cut grass in the summer – that gaze into his lens with an intensity seldom seen elsewhere.

“After weeding the fields, I sometimes carry my camera, walking among the city crowd with my body smelling like weeds. ‘Gardening doesn’t suit you.’ – I realize that the city woman who says this to me smells of grass, too.” (from Yoshio Mizoguchi’s afterword (included in Japanese & English translation))