While a lot of the things I talk about on this blog fall into the manga/art book basket, it turns out I’m also quite a fan of photobooks. I’m not limited by subject matter: if the photography is good and the subject matter is strong, I’m just as likely to enjoy a collection of body paint portraits as I am a photo essay about a power plant. In fact, one of my favorite dōjin works is a photobook.
For a while I wanted to get my hands on this Onoguchi Mao photobook; I had seen a few samples online and it seemed to have that realistic yet artistic aura that I usually look for in street photography (I admit I’m not too fond of fashion). Onoguchi herself is one of those interesting figures who oscillate between visibility and the underground: she was a finalist for “Miss iD 2014”, basically a contest for underground idols; however, most of her current work features her as a photographer and editor, including that featured here.Kikakakyo.
Dated 2014 and developed in collaboration with What do you want? editor Ryohei Mitsugi, this collection of A5 full-color photographs clearly shows Onoguchi’s excellent eye for color and composition. Although the subjects can be idols, singers, underground models and the like, the focus is always on the image as a whole, its balance and its design: this is not just a collection of street snapshots, and much less a gravure work (all models are fully clothed at all times).
Onoguchi measures up to both indoor and outdoor photography: while he is excellent in both fields, I think he particularly excels at capturing that fleeting, “private moment” essence that the former provides. Still, his outdoor work is just as excellent, often playing with depth of field and blur to give his photographs surprising depth. I guess the collection as a whole has a sort of slightly…retro feel to it: sometimes it feels more like an early 2000s production than one born well into the 2010s. It reminds me of the JP magazines I used to save clippings from when I was in college.
Overall, an excellent photobook, and pretty much all you can get when it comes to Onoguchi’s work – he did editorial and commercial work from the mid-2010s until around 2016, but now seems to have disappeared from the scene entirely; There are no social networks to speak of either. All we get is a couple of Google visits and an empty Wix domain. Which is fine: sometimes leaving the scene completely only adds to the mysticism. I wish you the best, wherever you are.
EDIT: Crazy enough, there is actually an English article available about the release of this book. Oh.