To celebrate the release of Yokonami Osamu's new photo book "MIZUGI," a talk event featuring book designer Shin Sobue will be held at the Aoyama Book Center main branch on March 31st. "MIZUGI" is the first installment (Spring) of the "Seasons Series," a quarterly photo book project by France-Sweden-based publisher LIBRARYMAN. The project began with the unique idea of artists working under the same conditions to express a single theme in the form of a book. For the release of "MIZUGI," Yokonami chose "swimsuits" as the theme, evoked by the "life force" of human body temperature and humidity, as an extension of his long-standing "Assembly" series, which features portraits of girls dressed in the same costume. He particularly focused on close-up shots. By endowing "MIZUGI" with the anonymity of the series, the collection's appeal and strength as a group portrait are highlighted.


The talk event will feature guest Sobue Shin, one of Japan's leading book designers known for his work on the magazine Soen (Bunka Publishing Bureau). He will explore the appeal of Yokonami Osamu's photography by discussing the background to the production of this work, and the two will also exchange opinions about their own work. There will also be a signing session with the artist after the talk event.