Statement by the photographer, Hajime KIMURA
"An album takes me here, far, far away, I never ever know.
One snowy day I took a walk with a black dog which my father used to have.
I just followed him as he led. We came by a path vanishing into rice fields. As soon as I released his leash, he ran away into the snow, like a jet melting into white canvas. I didn’t know the path he and my father had walked many times. Some memories with my family were fading away since the last relative, my father, passed away. I was not getting along with my family, so I stayed away from them. When I was back home, he was about to die. After a while I found a family album on his shelf. With those pictures I ended up realizing that some memories couldn’t come to me, even what happened a few years ago. Day by day I wanted to know more about them, especially about my father. So I decided to visit the places he had been to. Some of them were from the album, the others were from my memories. In order to recreate and fill in my blank space even though it was not the truth.
The jet didn’t come back.
I followed his steps again, slowly, just slowly." (© Hajime KIMURA)
In review, content
"I have been following Hajime KIMURA's work for several years, and he will be considered a master of the photobook form in the years to come. The unique objects he produces year after year are a testament to his willingness to bare his personal traumas and melancholic stories, and this is his best book yet. [...] A process of exploration and discovery drives the publication of 'Snowflakes Dog Man', but Hajime KIMURA's ability to construct such seductive handmade objects means that we feel that this book was made just for us, that it is the only one of its kind in the world that he has entrusted it to. As mentioned earlier, it seems a bit ridiculous to call 'Snowflakes Dog Man' a 'book'. It's three separate releases (two softcover and one hardcover) centered around a central narrative about the death of KIMURA's father. The dreamy gentleness and delicacy of the images is intoxicating and disturbing. These three books are housed in a handmade slipcase that gives the viewer a sense of discovery and a tactile experience of memory. Because of the strength of its imagery, this book feels like diving right into the cerebral cortex of Hajime KIMURA." (© Daniel Boetker-Smith, 2016 Best Book List for photo-eye, USA)
Additional information
The artist's edition of Hajime KIMURA's photo volume 'Snowflakes Dog Man' was created after Yumi Goto's photo book workshop at Reminders Photography Stronghold in 2016. The trade edition of 'Snowflakes Dog Man' by Hajime KIMURA offered here is a faithful replica of the original - of which there were only 69 copies - , and only slightly smaller in size. The same three books, offset printed in a black cardboard with silkscreen.
About the Japanese photographer, Hajime KIMURA
Photo books by Hajime KIMURA
- Ed(s)/Author(s)
- Eva-Maria Kunz
- Format
- Trade edition, Set of three boxed books: 1 unbound SC + 1 hand bound SC + 1 Japanese stab bound HC, Box w/ serigraphy on black cardboard, 19,5 cm. x 38,5 cm. x 2,5 cm., 222 pp on 2 different paper weights, 183 ills., 5 folds, bilingual text: Japanese / En