photo by Yasuhiro Ogawa
112 pages including 78 Black & white photos
Hard cover
23.3cm x 28.3cm, 1.3kg
Printed in Japan 2026
ISBN 978-1-9169054-9-8
Publisher : Photo Editions
Tales of the Islands by Japanese photographer Yasuhiro Ogawa is a quiet, atmospheric journey through Japan’s remote inhabited islands — places where time seems to move slowly, and traces of memory, history, and human presence linger in the landscape.
Many of these islands have faced depopulation and economic decline, with younger generations leaving for the mainland. Through Ogawa’s sensitive black-and-white photographs, weathered houses, silent coastlines, empty streets, and fragments of daily life become poetic records of places once filled with movement and community.
The project began after Ogawa visited Miyake-jima in 2005, five years after a volcanic eruption forced the entire population to evacuate. Drawn to the island’s suspended atmosphere, he continued photographing Japan’s remote islands over many years.
This edition is a revised and expanded version of Ogawa’s long sold-out 2014 photobook Shimagatari. Intimate, melancholic, and restrained, Tales of the Islands is a visual elegy on memory, disappearance, and the quiet resilience of place.
‘On Japan’s outlying islands, scattered beyond the archipelago’s larger main islands, history seems to accumulate like a bank of snow. Emotions, memories, and fragments of time settle layer upon layer, creating an atmosphere unique to the islands. At times, as I wander among them, that distinctive air becomes overwhelming, and I find myself hurrying to catch the return ferry. Yet once back on the mainland, I am seized by the feeling that I have left something precious behind, and before long I am drawn back to the islands once again.’ -- Yasuhiro Ogawa
photo by Yasuhiro Ogawa
112 pages including 78 Black & white photos
Hard cover
23.3cm x 28.3cm, 1.3kg
Printed in Japan 2026
ISBN 978-1-9169054-9-8
Publisher : Photo Editions
Tales of the Islands by Japanese photographer Yasuhiro Ogawa is a quiet, atmospheric journey through Japan’s remote inhabited islands — places where time seems to move slowly, and traces of memory, history, and human presence linger in the landscape.
Many of these islands have faced depopulation and economic decline, with younger generations leaving for the mainland. Through Ogawa’s sensitive black-and-white photographs, weathered houses, silent coastlines, empty streets, and fragments of daily life become poetic records of places once filled with movement and community.
The project began after Ogawa visited Miyake-jima in 2005, five years after a volcanic eruption forced the entire population to evacuate. Drawn to the island’s suspended atmosphere, he continued photographing Japan’s remote islands over many years.
This edition is a revised and expanded version of Ogawa’s long sold-out 2014 photobook Shimagatari. Intimate, melancholic, and restrained, Tales of the Islands is a visual elegy on memory, disappearance, and the quiet resilience of place.
‘On Japan’s outlying islands, scattered beyond the archipelago’s larger main islands, history seems to accumulate like a bank of snow. Emotions, memories, and fragments of time settle layer upon layer, creating an atmosphere unique to the islands. At times, as I wander among them, that distinctive air becomes overwhelming, and I find myself hurrying to catch the return ferry. Yet once back on the mainland, I am seized by the feeling that I have left something precious behind, and before long I am drawn back to the islands once again.’ -- Yasuhiro Ogawa
