Eiji Aihara - Next Door - 1977

Next Door

Eiji Aihara
Nore-sha/1977/Japanese/250*250*10

Next Door” is a collection of photographs by Japanese photographer Eiji Aihara. The book introduces his background as “born in Aihara-cho, Shizuoka Prefecture in 1940, graduated from a local high school, and began running his own textile business in 1963, where he has lived ever since.” Other than the fact that he began photography around 1960 and has been published several times in Asahi Camera, the details of his career are not clear. However, when looking at the illustrations in this book published in 1977, one is drawn to the simplicity and profundity of his work. Published by Norasha, which also published “Ihei Kimura Paris” and “Terutake Hashimoto, Goke” two of the greatest masterpieces in the history of Japanese photography, this collection of works by the golden duo of publisher Kazuo Kitai and editor Norio Osaki is a true masterpiece. As the title suggests, the photographs seem to have been taken in the neighborhood where the photographer lives, and they show a variety of scenes of seemingly ordinary life in the countryside, including overgrown and withered plants and trees, unmaintained dirt roads, wooden houses with a sense of history, Showa-era interiors, fish shops in town, children playing in the river, festival scenes, and so on. The images are full of power and depth, with well-calculated compositions and warm stories embedded within seemingly ordinary scenes of rural life. New Landscape is seen in the ordinary and casual everyday life.