SKELETON GOATS DUST STORMS Osamu Kanemura

In 2008, photographer Osamu Kanemura traveled to Beijing at the request of Etsuro Ishihara, the founder of Japan’s first photography gallery, ZEIT-FOTO SALON. This photobook brings together those works, which have remained unpublished until now.

The book is published under Mēdeia 2.0, a publishing label born from Mēdeia 1.0—a project that uses fashion as a medium to share global events and social issues captured by photographers from Japan and abroad.

As the city center bustled with the excitement of China’s first Olympic Games, Kanemura ventured into the outskirts where traditional siheyuan (courtyard houses) and hutong alleys still lingered, as well as the city’s zoo.

In addition to 47 works, the book includes a contribution by critic and curator Gen Umezu, along with a newly written text by Kanemura himself, presented in both Japanese and English.

The suburbs are filled with rubble and discarded objects, where feral dogs and goats roam through overgrown greenery. In contrast, the zoo presents animals and fish placed under human control within cages and tanks. This juxtaposition—landscapes where humanity and nature have parted ways versus landscapes where nature is held within the human palm—awakens a profound reflection on the interconnectedness of man and nature, and the "bleak landscapes" (sappukei) of the past.

Note: The special edition includes a hand-made silver gelatin print.