shashasha

“During my travel,
I met a big-bellied cow on a farm.
I wanted to see how she gives birth to a calf.
One day, the cow was found dead.”

As her introductory text suggests, Mai Nakama's photobook "Wandering Dog" is imbued with the theme of life and death. While both the cow and the calf make brief appearances, the book focuses largely on scenes of nature and everyday life in an unnamed rural town in Japan. Nakama's images alternate between intimate close-ups and striking compositions, and in her black-and-white photographs, light seems to emerge from darkness.