shashasha

The beginning of Kazuyuki Kawaguchi’s ongoing documentation of small towns in Japan’s rural regions.

For his “Prospects” series Kawaguchi, whose photographic vision is attuned to the modern cityscape of Tokyo, travels through Japan to photograph sceneries and townscapes found in and between various small cities. His approach includes common sights as much as idiosyncratic peculiarities, captured with a remarkably neutral eye and imbued with a degree of detail that brings the beauty inherent in the slow decline of these once prosperous places to life. True to its name, Kawaguchi’s series observes the history of the documented places and considers their future prospects.

This very first volume in the Prospects series includes photographs shot between 2011 and 2017 in locations that include Hokusetsu, Tamba, Harima and Tajima, where Kawaguchi lived until early 2017.