Our Thursday series features must-read books from each branch of the art bookshop NADiff. This week, we feature photographer Ishikawa Ryuichi's collection, "Okinawa Portraits 2012-2016." It's introduced by NADiff BAITEN, the museum shop inside the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Ebisu (2nd floor, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Ebisu Garden Place, 1-13-3 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo). ■ "Okinawa Portraits 2012-2016" by Ishikawa Ryuichi

Okinawa-born photographer Ishikawa Ryuichi rode his motorcycle around the island, capturing 3,000 portraits in "Okinawa Portraits 2010-2012." His ongoing photography in Okinawa was compiled into a book, "Okinawa Portraits 2012-2016," which was published in September of this year. In Ishikawa's photographs, the only fact is that when the shutter was pressed, those people and those scenes were there. While these are certainly Okinawan people and Okinawan scenery, the subjects in his photographs reject the image of "Okinawa-ness" that has unconsciously been cultivated within us. The subjects aren't particularly smiling at us, nor are they trying to appeal to us in any particular way. Yet there is a powerful intensity inherent in human life. In the afterword, he writes: "Amidst a sea of confusing information, desires only grow, and we are now on the verge of consuming ourselves. What we really need is not money itself, or even the economic system itself. We need proof of existence, and a medium or system for sharing it." By shedding preconceived notions of "ness" shaped by experience and common sense, Ishikawa simply focuses on what is in front of him, exposing the very existence of the objects he photographs. No matter where you look, the images are vividly raw, refusing to allow us to consume them as "Okinawa-esque photographs." In the afterword to "Okinawan Portraits 2010-2012," Ishikawa wrote, "It's really just an encounter with a photograph that can only happen with that person, in that place, and at that time. That's all there is to it. And yet, the photograph always speaks to me. 'Isn't this what you're looking for?' But I can't be certain. Perhaps forever." As Ishikawa wrote, "Okinawan Portraits" is uninterrupted. Encounters that could only have happened with that person, in that place, at that time. These coincidences will continue every day until I die. Photographs remind me that they are the result of such coincidences. As Ishikawa said, "You have come this far, and this is where you go," the photographs in "Okinawan Portraits 2012-2016" are nothing but proof of the subjects' existence—"they," "they," "they," and "they are here." At the same time, they are proof of Ishikawa's own existence as the photographer.

【Book Information】
"Okinawan Portraits 2012-2016"
Author: Ishikawa Ryuichi
Publisher: Akaaka Art Publishing
Format: Softcover / 288 pages / 245 x 255 mm
Language: Japanese
Price: 5,000 yen