中根浩一 写真作品集 by SELFISH GENE

Winter is in full swing, and it seems as if it's snowing all over the place in Italy. All over the place but here, that is. Gone the beautiful foggy season, all we're left with is the worst part of winter. I will never move to the seaside soon enough :S

In spite of very little photographic material that I'll be able to provide for this dōjinshi (there is nothing online and I'm not going to compromise my copy's spine just to take a few pics), it felt as if I just had to write a brief review of 中根浩一 写真作品集: not only because SELFISH GENE is one of my favorite inactive circles, but also because of a rather sad particularity: it's the first commemorative dōjinshi I have come across. By commemorative, I mean featuring the work of someone who has passed away.

Kouichi Nakane (1975 -2001) seems to have been a good friend of SELFISH GENE's Fujikura Kazune, and shared with them a passion for photography. The 中根浩一 写真作品集 collection is split in two parts: a first half is made up of Fujikura's own works, some of them unedited versions of pics that already appeared on Libération from Fujikura, while the second part is dedicated to the photography work of Nakane, which shares some elements in common but also differs from Fujikura's in style and subject matter. There is also a DVD which, unfortunately, did not manage to survive thirteen-odd years of bad storage. Such a shame :S

The book is a nice and thick 86 pages in full color, very well designed and solidly bound aside for the DVD mishap. The part dedicated to Fujikura contains very little text, and focuses instead on the pictures themselves: mostly sunshaft-filled shots of suburban landscapes and people closeups, something Inio Asano would do if he photographed instead of drawing manga. Nakane's side is a bit thicker with words, giving some background on him, his interests and the memories he left behind for Fujikura and other close friends. Nakane's work is very similar to Fujikura's, and the book includes some very moving pics of both of them frolicking in suburbia with friends.

While, technically speaking, both photographers are fairly skilled - at least as far as a photography ignoramus like me could tell - I am not sure how I feel about the theme of the book's second part: I have always felt very ambivalent toward memorials, as they often ride a thin line between healing remembrance and sappy sentimentalism. Still, I can't help by appreciate this tribute of a photographer to another photographer  and friend. As far as I could tell using my still very shaky Japanese knowledge, the tribute didn't seem overdone or too congratulatory.

I'm now missing a single SELFISH GENE dōjinshi, a very slim one so I'm not entirely sure whether I'll purchase it. Next week, however, the new Heikinritsu is coming in...