Summertime, and the living is easy

Yukihito Kono, 244, self-published, Japan, 2014

It’s summertime, and there is a book I can’t stop looking at: 244 by Yukihito Kono. It can’t be any simpler. You take a photograph of the sea, enlarge a few details into A3 paper with a photocopier, then fold those sheets and sew them in the traditional Japanese way. And there it is.

Although I am right now 300 kilometers away from the nearest beach, as I leaf through these pages over and over I almost feel the breeze on my face, listen to the waves kissing the sand and squint at the glare of the sun reflected on the water.

Two design elements contribute to this: knowing that the pages are all parts of the same picture make me look more intensely at the images, try to find the continuity, to solve the puzzle; and the photocopy printing, which is so crude (compared to, say, color offset printing) and functional that the mind is forced to fill in the details from memory and experience.

The edition is sold out already but, why don’t you make your own version? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going swimming…

Yukihito Kono

244

self-published;

first edition, 2014; edition of 25; 48 pages; 210 × 297 mm.;

japanese binding; photocopy printing;