What's this? Book review of Keiko Nomura's photo book.

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Impressions: There is an obvious Araki and/or Hiromix influence on her work in this book. It is a miscellaneous mix of cityscapes, young women/men or couples at home, building facades, food, shop windows, and a bit of nudity. No US bases, no American servicemen. There are not very many photos. It is a very limited glimpse of Okinawa under a very broad title of "Deep South." When I hear "Deep South," I first think of Alabama, Kentucky, or Tennessee in the US. So the book's title threw me off a little before I found out it was about Okinawa. Note that it is not a common term for Okinawa. She may be the only person who calls it that.

There is no text, so we are kept in the dark about who the subjects are and where the picture was taken. I hate it when the photographer forces us to try and figure out or imagine what the picture is about.

Amazingly, she won the Photographic Society of Japan's Newcomer Award in 1999 for her Okinawa photos. I think she is the first young, female, photo diary-type photographer to receive an award from this prestigious organization. Not even her more famous cohorts such as Hiromix and Yurie Nagashima have won an award from the PSJ. It's another definite sign that Japan's photographic establishment is starting to recognize their work as art.

*Also see the Deep South photo exhibition review (written by Monty DiPietro) at AssemblyLanguage.com.

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