Akihiko Okamura - Les souvenirs des autres

Atelier EXB 2024

French language edition

This book brings together for the first time Akihiko Okamura's work in Ireland, on the occasion of the digitization of this virtually unpublished corpus, accompanied by texts that contextualize his work within the history of the period and that of the photographic medium.

During the Troubles, the struggle for independence that lasted from 1969 to 1998, Northern Ireland attracted a large number of foreign photojournalists who came to document the events. Some of them found a subject that touched them personally, pushing them to go beyond the codes of photojournalism. Such is the case of Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura, who produced a unique and remarkable body of work in color in the early years of the conflict, and who is still curiously unknown today.
Born in Tokyo in 1929, Akihiko Okamura distinguished himself as one of the great war photographers of his generation, operating in Vietnam in the early 1960s. He is still highly respected in Japan, but his work and experience in Ireland, essential to both his work and his personal life, have been little explored. Okamura arrived on the island with his family in 1969 and lived there until his death in 1985. He photographed his daily life and the surrounding area, but soon became interested in the north of the country and its struggle for independence.

First edition
Book size 20 x 28,5 cm
160 pages
Hardcover