Collecting Summers
夏をあつめて
Koji Onaka
(尾仲浩二)

SUPER LABO is proud to announce the release of the new book ”Collecting Summers" by Koji Onakai.

Fewer and fewer times have I ventured out to places during the summer over these years.
"It was in 1999 and I was 39 years old, feeling stagnant in both my career and life, when I quit taking black and white photographs and took up color film photography instead.
Liberated from a kind of heavy seriousness of black and white photography, I came to feel more at ease releasing the shutter aimed at various subjects and scenes I had never photographed before in black and white.

I was surprised at the quantity of information contained in color negatives. Moreover, an amazing discovery for me was that the sky, ocean, flowers, and grassy fields were represented so vividly on paper through the darkroom process.
Feeling that this was a new beginning for my own photography, I started to travel to various places across Japan again carrying my bag filled with rolls of color film. Ashibetsu, Utashinai (Hokkaido); Kanita (Aomori), Kakunodate (Akita); Sanjo (Niigata); Iwai, Awakatsuyama, Onjuku (Chiba); Jogashima (Kanagawa); Saijo (Ehime); Katsurahama (Kochi); Suo-oshima (Yamaguchi); Fukue (Nagasaki); and Naha (Okinawa).....

This year, now 2017, as I sat in my cool, air-conditioned darkroom in the unbearable summer heat just before the end of the rainy season, I longed to see again the photographs of when color photography seemed so fresh to me. This is a book compiling those photographs, overflowing with the light of those summer days."

w21.6 x h28cm
52 Pages
40 Images(color)
Softcover(hand-sewn)
Full color Offset
Limited edition of 1000
Published in 2017
ISBN 978-4-908512-12-4

Collecting Summers Special edition

「夏にどこかへ出かけることがめっきり少なくなりました。
ずっと撮り続けていた白黒写真を捨て、ネガカラーでの撮影を選んだのは1999年、作品と生活の行き詰まりを感じていた39歳の時でした。
白黒写真の持っていたある種の重さから解放された僕は、白黒フィルムでは撮ることのなかった光景にも気軽にシャッターを押せるようになっていきました。
ネガカラーの持つ情報量の多さにも驚きましたが、なにより空や海、花や草むらが暗室作業を経て鮮やかに印画上に再現されることがとても新鮮だったのです。
新しい自分の写真の始まりを感じた僕は、ふたたびカラーフィルムをバッグに詰めて日本のあちこちへ出かけるようになりました。
芦別、歌志内、蟹田、角館、三条、岩井、安房勝山、御宿、城ヶ島、西条、桂浜、周防大島、福江、那覇….
今年2017年、梅雨明け前の猛暑の中クーラーの効いた暗室で、あのカラー写真が新鮮だった頃の、それも光のあふれた夏の写真がもう一度見たくなってあつめたのがこの本です。」

w21.6 x h28cm
52ページ
41イメージ(カラー)
並製本(手綴じ)
カラーオフセット印刷
限定1000部
Published in 2017
ISBN 978-4-908512-12-4

Collecting Summers Special edition