Signed, Yoshino Oishi - Silent Flowers - 1979

Silent Flowers

Yoshino Oishi
Bronze Company/1979/Japanese/255*275*30

“Silent Flowers,” a photo book by Japanese female photographer Yoshino Oishi. Yoshino Oishi studied photography at the Department of Photography, College of Art, Nihon University. Deeply moved by her visit to Vietnam during her student years, she began photographing the world as a freelance documentary photographer immediately upon graduation. She continues to document the lives of people who have experienced extreme situations such as war and civil strife. Like Oishi’s first photo book, *Come, Spring, If You Will* (1973), this volume also takes “Japanese women” as its subject. The photo shoots with four models reportedly took five years to complete; the women, with their faces painted white and their kimonos partially undone to reveal their upper bodies, are captured within a unique aesthetic against fantastical backdrops such as traditional Japanese houses, snowy landscapes, and cherry blossom trees. “I think I first began to wonder, quite simply, ‘What is a woman?’ when I was a teenager. As I picked up a camera and traveled abroad repeatedly for assignments, I became consumed by a strong desire to somehow capture in images the passion possessed by ‘women’—and especially ‘Japanese women.’ (Excerpt omitted) The result of this trial and error is this book, *Hana Damashi*” (from the afterword).