{"product_id":"shinkiro","title":"Shinkiro","description":"\u003cp\u003eWe had long dreamed of working with photographer Yoshikazu Aizawa, who had already been involved in the BadSeed Zine project by Alessandra Pace, the magazine’s founder herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis raw and elegant look at the same time, his intrinsic Japanese vision of the point of light, the choice of the model and the way of photographing her immediately won us over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the help of Roberto Pesci, a long-time collaborator based in Tōkyō, we began to plan an exclusive and unreleased photographic work by Aizawa, and in the end we were able to confront one of his rolls dedicated to model Nao Tokiwa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery beautiful, direct shots, capable of dialoguing with nature and escaping the canonical gaze of the portrait photographer, to mix with sand, wood, objects, almost trespassing the terrain of street photography. Alessandra Pace, Jacopo Buranelli and Giuliano Manselli took the time to confront the roll, without knowing anything about Nao, knowing only Aizawa’s artwork and being guided by their own tastes and direct aesthetic feeling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRyūnosuke Akutagawa was undoubtedly one of the most important and interesting writers of early twentieth century Japan, author mainly of short stories. Shortly before his death by suicide in 1927, he would engage in a literary dispute with Jun’ichirō Tanizaki over the character of fiction, arguing against the literary practice he had followed up to that time of the “novel without story,” Tanizaki, on the contrary, argued importance of structure. Among The so-called “plotless” novels, those of Akutagawa’s last period, we can find Shinkirō (Mirage).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a short story that appeared in a magazine in 1927. The protagonist speaks in the first person about a trip he made with friends to Kugenuma Beach (near Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture) to witness the phenomenon of mirages. Nothing appears that day. Walking along the shoreline, however, the group of friends finds a piece of wood placed in memory of someone who died at sea. Some time later, the protagonist returns to the same spot with his wife and a friend and this time he hears the sound of a bell preceding the mirage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mirage is a natural optical illusion. An unreal phenomenon that escapes from canonical logic in that it exists in order not to exist. The point of view is an individual concept, a perception of one’s own way of seeing. The mirage involves everyone, but each character has his or her own different and modified perception of the unreal itself, just as he or she has of the real.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReferring to this paradigm as well, we have taken inspiration from Akutagawa’s short story to present photos of Aizawa, model Nao, and the universe around them. Each chapter of this short story\/roll is interpreted by a different editor, who explains how he or she perceived the shots. We are delighted that Aizawa sensei has given us this trust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArtist: \u003c\/strong\u003eYoshikazu Aizawa\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/strong\u003eKing Koala Press\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePage Count:\u003c\/strong\u003e 160pp\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSize: \u003c\/strong\u003e8.5 x 11\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNotes: \u003c\/strong\u003eADULTS ONLY, paperback, dust jacket, color, limited\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEdition: \u003c\/strong\u003e300\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDate of Publication:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 979-1281835122\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"King Koala Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48890333724928,"sku":"9791281835122","price":46.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0053\/3902\/files\/shinkiro.jpg?v=1782427508","url":"https:\/\/atomicbooks.com\/products\/shinkiro","provider":"Atomic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}