What's this? Book review of IZIMA Kaoru's photo book.

Larger image (at Kinokuniya)

PhotoGuide Japan receives a commission when you buy at Amazon using our Amazon links/search box.

Search Now: �

サーチ: �

Impressions: There he goes again. Izima-san continues to surprise us with unusual and intriguing photo works. By now, you must have heard about his Landscapes with a Corpse series where actresses pose as murdered corpses.

Now add sleeping actresses to his unusual photo repertoire. Of course, there's nothing unusual about seeing candid photos of actresses asleep. But what's unusual is seeing an entire photo book of an actress sleeping. I've never seen any photographer do that before.

The book has nothing but photos of actress Yasuko Matsuyuki sleeping under a table in her living room. She lies on a few blankets on the carpeted floor and clings to a blanket while wearing a skimpy white dress that well exposes her legs. Izima shoots her from all angles as well as closeups of her eyelashes, legs, hand, etc. It's daytime light and Izima does not use flash.

For this shoot, she stayed up all night and then went to sleep at around 8:30 a.m. when Izima came to her house to start shooting. Izima is there clicking away during the entire several hours when she slept. He obviously did it very quietly so as to not disturb her sleeping. The final photos of the book show her waking up and smiling.

I asked Izima-san why he decided to photograph sleeping actresses. He says that he likes the human condition when the person is totally defenseless and inactive. Although the faces of sleeping people are actually different, they start to look the same. And there are obvious similarities with his corpse series, but the sleep series is not grisly.

He was surprised to find that more women than men thought the book was interesting. And people either liked or didn't like the book. No in-between opinions.

Izima has already shot a few other actresses sleeping, so if he can find more publishers, expect to see more books of his sleeping actresses. (Reviewed by Philbert Ono)

700-5