Soko Ichiri #01/#02 Atsuto Shimada

This two-part volume documents the 2022 and 2024 solo exhibitions held at Kinkan Gallery in Meguro, Tokyo, from Atsuto Shimada’s ongoing series "Soko Ichiri." Set in his native Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, Shimada’s process is deeply ritualistic: he consistently uses a 50mm lens (with occasional forays into 55mm), the same film, and a fixed development and printing routine. This publication is positioned not merely as a photo book, but as an exhibition catalogue, born from the artist's conviction that the rich gradations and grain unique to hand-printed darkroom photography can truly only be expressed through the physical print itself.

“I journey repeatedly to my homeland, the Boso Peninsula. As time circles back, the light shifts ever so subtly. My consciousness, too, drifts slowly as I tread upon the grass. This world, though seen through a steady gaze, is never quite the same from one moment to the next. When the scenery before me breaks into fragments, my familiar hometown suddenly reveals itself as a distant frontier. Driven by the tremor in my heart at that moment, I continue to photograph Boso as if bewitched by the phenomenon of 'Soko Ichiri.'

Close yet far, far yet close. The act of photographing transcends consciousness, and the way the world appears begins to change bit by bit. Trembling with a nostalgia that is both intimate and estranged, perhaps I am meeting Boso anew each time. No matter how much I capture, I am haunted by the feeling that there is ‘still something more.’”

(Note: The title comes from a local proverb, "Kazusa no Soko Ichiri." When you ask for directions in Boso, locals will say it’s "just right there" (soko), but when you start walking, it turns out to be a full li (ichiri, approx. 4km) away—a distance that never seems to end.)