flowers

flowers is a photobook by Yoshiyuki Okuyama, a dialogue with his late grandmother through flowers. He photographed the series over many years in the house where she lived, which is now his studio. Published by Akaaka Art Publishing in 2021.

The story behind the book

In the light coming into the rooms and the plants moving in the garden, Okuyama remembers his grandmother and photographs flowers as if picking up the conversations they rarely had. Many were shot on 110 film, the small format his grandfather used in the 1980s. Windows recur as a motif: flowers reflected in the glass and flowers in the room, flowers inside and flowers in the garden.

Among them are photographs of the kitchen, the study and the bedroom, taken with large-format contact sheets, medium format, 35mm and Polaroid. They seem to show his grandmother's view while she lived, her drifting view after death, and his own. Old family albums, the house and furniture, and flowers blooming now run together through the book.

The flowers were provided by flower creator Megumi Shinozaki (edenworks): flowers that would otherwise have been thrown away.

What is in the book

• Flowers and rooms in his grandmother's house, shot on 110 film and many other formats
• 152 pages, cloth-bound hardcover, designed by Kaoru Kasai and Yuki Adachi
• Followed by windows (2023) and photographs (2026)

About Yoshiyuki Okuyama

Born in 1991 in Tokyo, Okuyama received an Excellence Award at the 34th Canon New Cosmos of Photography for Girl in 2011 and the 47th Kodansha Publishing Culture Award for photography for BACON ICE CREAM in 2016. He also directs TV commercials, films and music videos.