The little square book arrived in a FedEx box, buried in packing peanuts.
A dedication appears on the first page: “For Aina,” followed by powerful black-and-white photographs telling her story and the stories of five other young Japanese women who use self-injury to cope with depression and anxiety. But two-thirds of the way through, the photos disappear, leaving only blank, mint-green pages.
Those pages are not an accident. In an attempt to connect viewers directly with the women he photographed, Kosuke Okahara left them blank so people can leave messages in words, sketches or photos. Six of these books have been circulating around the world, with the intent that the six women depicted will receive the books, and the messages.
Mr. Okahara, who received the W. Eugene Smith Fellowship for his work on the project, originally considered self-publishing the book. Then he had an idea. He wanted people to see the photos and weigh in; to let his subjects know that people all over the world see, and care about, their stories.
“I feel that above all else, to help the girls I photographed should be of first and foremost importance,” he wrote in his introduction to the project, which he called “Ibasyo.”
[For more of this story, written by Kerri MacDonald, go to http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/...r-its-subjects/?_r=0]
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