Shimagatari 島語り

Apart from the larger main islands of the archipelago, there are about 300 inhabited islands in Japan. Most of them are tiny islands with small population of few hundreds, and almost of all inhabitants are elderly people. Those islands used to be vibrant, but I suspect most of the islands will be deserted in the near future due to the serious depopulation.

This book is the result of my 10-year journey to those deserted islands. I overlooked the sea, sitting on the empty beach. I believe our ancestors also overlooked the same sea, sitting on the same place. The sea never changes. Only our human life does the change, which grows, matures, and dies out as time goes by.

About the artist: Yasuhiro Ogawa 小川康博

Born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1968. He started photography in early twenties by the strong influence of Sebastian Salgado’s work. 

He has had many solo and group exhibitions including Futashika-na-Chizu at Kodak Photo Salon, Tokyo (1999), Slowly Down the River at Nikon Salon Ginza, Tokyo (2006), Winter Journey at Doozo Gallery, Rome (2013), Caascade at Sokyusha Gallery, Tokyo (2018) and Contes des iles et Paysages de la Mer du Japon at Inbetween Gallery, Paris (2018). 

He has published five photobooks such as Slowly Down the River (Creo, 2008), Shimagatari (Sokyusha, 2014), Cascade (Sokyusha, 2017), By the Sea (self-published, 2018) and The Dreaming (Sokyusha, 2020). He has won several awards such as the Taiyo Award for his first solo exhibition Futashika-na-Chizu (2000) and The photographic Society of Japan New Comer Award for his first book Slowly Down the River. He was a finalist at the Oskar Barnack Award (2006) and the Hayashi Tadahiko Award (2015).

He currently lives in Tokyo.

Shimagatari 島語り

「除了群島上較大的主要島嶼外，日本其實還有約300個有人居的島。它們大多數是小島，人跡稀少，只有數百居民，幾乎大部分都是老年人。而這些島嶼曾經充滿活力，但我懷疑由於人口老化及減少，大多數島嶼將在不久的將來被拋棄。這本書是我十年間到訪這些荒島的旅程成果。我坐在空曠的海灘上俯瞰大海。我相信我們的祖先也曾坐在同一地方，俯視過同一片海洋。海洋永遠不會改變，但隨著時間的流逝，只有人類的生命曾做出過改變，而這種改變只會不斷增長、成熟並消亡。」－小川康博

關於藝術家：
1968年生於日本神奈川縣。90年代初深受大師 Sebastião Salgado 的作品啟發而踏入攝影領域，目前作為自由攝影師並定居東京。他舉辦過多場個展和聯合展覽，出版了五本攝影集並曾獲得了多個獎項，包括他的第一個個人展覽《Futashika-na-Chizu》（1999年）獲第37屆太陽賞，以及第一本攝影集《Slowly Down the River》（2006年）獲得了日本攝影學會新人獎。