Each bookstore will act as a concierge, recommending "the book you should read now" to FASHION HEADLINE readers. Every Saturday, we will introduce a book selected by Shelf, a Harajuku bookstore (3-7-4 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo), which specializes in foreign books. This week's featured book is "Photocopy," a new collection of works by photographer Go Itami.



■ "Photocopy" by Go Itami

This is a new photo book by Go Itami, a photographer who has gained high acclaim both at home and abroad for his work that emphasizes flatness and appeals to the power of the visual itself.

Rather than incorporating each photograph into a theme in the form of a photo story or photo essay, how could each photograph be presented as a standalone work? How could each work be freed from the flow of what came before and after it, while still making it a complete book? After careful consideration by the photographer, designer, and editor, they arrived at the surprising result of a form resembling a stack of documents, with each volume having a different pagination (the order in which the works appear) despite having the same title.

Following on from the previous photo book, "This Year's Model," which was sandwiched between thick, transparent acrylic, the book design is handled by Akiyama Shin. While seemingly simple at first glance, the book design is beautiful, packed with ingenuity down to the smallest details.