Koji Onaka｜Slow Boat Koji Onaka

“Slow Boat” is a series of photographs taken by Koji Onaka, who has been active mainly at the independent gallery “Kaido” and has developed his own unique style while traveling around Japan between 1983 and 1999. There are six collotype prints including a butterfly print used on the cover of the photo book of the same title, a houseboat, fireworks on the beach, a wharf with a lighthouse, a snowy town and a snap shot from a cat lover’s perspective. All prints were created using warm paper with a different texture from Onaka’s original silver gelatin prints with nostalgic colors that evoke the photographer’s memories.

Koji Onaka

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1960. After graduating from Tokyo College of Photography in 1982, he worked at ”CAMP”, an independent gallery run by photographers including Daido Moriyama, before opening his own gallery “Kaido” in 1988. He began traveling around Japan in his twenties and continued to work mainly at independent galleries. His photographs of desolate rural scenes that evoke a sense of nostalgia have earned him a loyal following both in Japan and overseas. In recent years, Onaka has also edited and published books, and has made numerous presentations and activities overseas. His books include ”Seitaka Awadachi-sou”, “Tokyo Candy Box”, “Slow Boat”, “French Dogs”, “Matatabi”, “Umimachi”, “LUCKY CAT”, “SHORT TRIP AGAIN” and “Collecting Summer”.

What is collotype?

In the 1880s, the collotype printing process was introduced to Kyoto and by 1905 Benrido had begun producing collotypes. Collotype is one of the earliest forms of printing techniques and was invented in France in 1855 by Alphonse Poitevin as a method for photographic fine art printing.  Due to the high level of print and archival quality, it has since been used primarily as a way to reproduce and preserve Japan’s National Treasures and cultural properties. Today Benrido Collotype Atelier remains as one of only a few studios left in the world capable of producing fine colour collotype prints.