Yoshiyuki Okuyama Photobook "Windows" Special Limited Edition (Signed)

About the productJapanese

This product is also on display and for sale in stores, so it may not be available.
Please be aware of this.

A portrait of "Tokyo" depicting people through windows

Yoshiyuki Okuyama's new photo collection, "Windows," is a series of approximately 100,000 photographs of opaque glass windows taken in Tokyo over a two-and-a-half-year period from April 2020 to November 2022. This book contains 724 of these photographs, which Okuyama took for the first time using a digital camera.

During this time of COVID-19, Okuyama has been unable to travel abroad much, so while walking around the streets of Tokyo, he noticed the expressions of windows. Many of the windows facing the street are made of opaque glass such as frosted or figured glass, allowing various everyday items inside to be seen through them.

Kitchen and bathroom plumbing, figures, flowers, laundry, posters, umbrellas, Shinto shrines, bicycles... The interior space trimmed along the window frames becomes an abstract pattern, and while it also contains shadows and reflections from the outside, it makes you imagine the presence of someone living there. It was the moment when each window became a portrait of the people of Tokyo. When you look into the window through the camera viewfinder, what seemed to be the separation between inside and outside becomes a screen, and the flat surface takes on a new depth.

Tokyo is a city where different things are built close together, creating a city that is constantly in flux and over-generated.

Okuyama believes that opaque glass windows reflect the distance between the people who live there, and that historically they originated from shoji screens that let in outside light even while closed. "Windows," which connects to architecture and culture through windows, is also a valuable record of the times.


In his previous work, "Flowers" (published by our company in 2021), Okuyama depicted a dialogue with his late grandmother through flowers, in which the gaze from inside to outside through a window overlapped with facing a certain person. In this work, he dialogues with a stranger by looking from outside to inside, and the individual and unspecified portraits will naturally reflect the society at his feet.

Rather than being specimen-like, "Windows" fluctuates between representation and abstraction depending on the light and distance, coexisting with vivid images. It marks an important turning point in Okuyama's work, and its unique way of capturing the present and people offers deep suggestions.

"In Tokyo, a city packed with buildings and with an intricate cultural layering, I saw people's expressions in the opaque windows, which could be considered a kind of symbol. Gazing into the window felt like gazing into the eyes of a stranger. I sincerely hope that this silent exchange of glances can become a portrait of the people living in the city of Tokyo." (From Okuyama Yoshiyuki's preface)
■ Yoshiyuki Okuyama
Born in Tokyo in 1991.
Winner of the 34th New Cosmos of Photography Excellence Award and the 47th Kodansha Publishing Culture Award Photography Award. His major photo books include "flowers" (AKAAKA Art Publishing), "As the Call, So the Echo" (AKAAKA Art Publishing), "BEST BEFORE" (Seigensha), "POCARI SWEAT" (Seigensha), "BACON ICE CREAM" (PARCO Publishing), "Girl" (PLANCTON), "The Town Where You Live" (SPACE SHOWER BOOKS), "Los Angeles / San Francisco" (Union publishing), "The Good Side" (Editions Bessard), "Ton! Tan! Pan! Don!" (bookshop M), and the Taiwanese version of "BACON ICE CREAM" (Genten Publishing).
Major exhibitions include "As the Call, So the Echo" at Gallery 916, "BACON ICE CREAM" at Parco Museum, "The Town You Live In" at Omotesando Hills Space O, "White Light" at Canon Gallery S, "flowers" at Parco Museum Tokyo, and "THE NEW STORY" at POST.

Product Information

release date

Part number9784865411720

Specification Book Design: Kaoru Kasai, Yuki Adachi
Size: H194mm x W205mm
Page: 752 pages (724 items included)
Binding: Cloth Hardcover
Weight: 1.68kg (thickness 5.5cm)
Published in June 2023

*The special limited edition (500 copies) is autographed and has a white cloth exterior (same contents).

Notes

Payment method is credit card only.
In-stock items usually ship within 1-3 days.
If the item is out of stock, we will inform you of the stock status and delivery date by email after you place your order. Thank you for your understanding.
We do not accept returns or exchanges of products. However, we will accept returns and exchanges if the product is defective or damaged due to our fault.