shashasha

Following his 2019 photobook “Resident Birds”, this time Shoichi Ito explores the theme of “Vagrant Birds” — migratory birds that missed their designated goals and arrive in entirely new regions. Will they stay? Fly off somewhere else? Are they able to survive?

For “Vagrant Birds”, Ito took landscape photographs in Japan’s San’in region, following his move to Tottori Prefecture (spelled with the character for “bird” in Japanese) in 2021. Like in “Resident Birds”, Ito lets the titular theme of migratory birds overlap with his own life, underpinning his already captivating photographs of weathered seascapes, lakes, shrubbery and scattered houses with deeper layers of meaning.

“Nearly 3 years have passed, and my feelings of excitement and anxiety about this place have softened. I hope this book conveys how my gaze on this place has become slightly stronger and further.”
― from Shoichi Ito’s afterword (included in Japanese and in English translation)