Small Town

Staged on a farm in rural Japan, externaling Higashikawa in Hokkaido, Osamu Yokonami’s images demonstrate his particular use of photography as an artistic medium. Working with straightforward camera angles, Yokonami transforms ordinary bodies, farming tools and the local produce into haunting images—unexpectedly absurd and familiar. Headless figures, an aubergine-masked face, an abandoned baby on a paper bag, a topless character submissively kneeling in the grass while balancing two large tomatoes on their back. The series suggests a performative and complicit moment between the photographer and the people portrayed. As one feels the vulnerability of the subject facing the lens, one wonders: who is playing who in this image?

The book contains a foreword written by editor and designer Tony Cederteg.