Photos: Kosuke Okahara’s “Blue Affair,” an experiential documentation of Koza
“Blue Affair” is a photo book, and also an experimental short film based on photographer Kosuke Okahara’s dreams of his
“Blue Affair” is a photo book, and also an experimental short film based on photographer Kosuke Okahara’s dreams of his time spent in a town called Koza in Japan. Creative director Tatsuya Ishikawa writes extensively about Okahara’s work and process in the afterword of the book. He writes how physical and nonphysical boundaries shape the identity of Koza’s people and demarcate Koza as an entity set apart from the rest of Okinawa island.
Updated on Mar 27, 2021 02:01 PM IST 9 Photos
1/9
Tatsuya Ishikawa, a creative director writes about the work in the afterword, “In the pictures captured in Koza by Kosuke Okahara, I don’t see the photographer. It’s not because he was the one photographing, or for some other physical reasons. I don’t find superficial emotions emanating through his lens from either the subjects or from the photographer.”(Photo by Kosuke Okahara)
2/9
“Nobody’s gaze ever met his lens, as if the photographer was not present. This might not make sense, but it feels to me as though while the photographer was with his subjects, looking directly at them, he was actually observing from another realm.”(Photo by Kosuke Okahara)
3/9
“What is left are pictures free from superficial emotions such as warmth and sadness and left with an almost unbearable weight of presence. Without a doubt, in those moments, while sharing the same space he was observing from some other dimension.”(Photo by Kosuke Okahara)
4/9
“As Katakana is a symbolic way to define and separate things with non-Japanese origins, by giving Koza a Katakana name, an “otherness” is implied. As such, this also suggests the existence of borders. For Koza, its borders exist in multiple planes and dimensions,” writes Ishikawa about Koza, where “Blue Affair” is set.(Photo by Kosuke Okahara)
5/9