shashasha

A photobook of a shared encounter with a stranger

In detail shots, portraits, sequential photos and landscape photographs, Japanese artist Shono Inoue recounts his time with an older gentleman he met in Paris while he worked part-time at a gallery during the lockdown period. Originally a stranger, Inoue encountered the man every day on his way to the gallery. Feeling drawn to the man’s rhythm of life and his philosophy, he began taking photographs. Over time, the two became friends, shared conversations and walks.
Inoue’s photographs capture the warmth and coincidental nature of their relationship and reveal enough details to let the reader paint their own story.

“Perhaps it was because I was exhausted from the lockdowns and my uncertain future in France. The sceneries that the two of us stopped to look at together seemed somewhat nostalgic to me and gentle, as if things would last forever. I think it was the most beautiful time of my life.”
— from the artist’s statement