Koji Onaka: A Slow Boat to China

March 21, 2004 Sunny
I bought a hundred rolls of film and a large suitcase before going to Shanghai.

Boat is an important intention in Koji Onaka’s photographic career, and he says he prefers boat to railroad. Boats have no fixed routes and float freely on the water, just as Koji Onaka did when he was taking photographs.

This book “A Slow Boat To China”, co-published by Jiazazhi and Place M, which pays homage not only to Koji Onaka's own black-and-white masterpiece “Slow Boat”, but also to Haruki Murakami’s short story “A Slow Boat To China”. Jazz lovers might have noticed that Haruki Murakami's novel references the 1948 Frank Loesser’s “On A Slow Boat To China”.

This book contains 70 color images from Koji Onaka’s visit to China from March 21 to April 23, 2004. 20 years later, Koji Onaka realized that the color negatives from his time in China had begun to fade, and before the negatives completely faded, he enlarged them on expired photographic paper to produce these images of China, or to freeze our collective memories on photographic paper.  The book also includes Koji Onaga’s photo diary, which is worth reading.

Pages: 109
Dimensions: 180 × 240 mm
Format: Hardcover
Language: Chinese, Japanese
Year: 2024
Publisher: Jiazazhi, Place M