Publisher/暮しの手帖社

Google翻訳
"Snow Country" is a photobook by Japanese photographer Kensuke Shimada. After joining the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, Shimada worked as a member of the photography team from the founding of "Asahi Graph," gaining experience on the front lines of photojournalism, including documenting the Great Kanto Earthquake. After the war, he shifted the focus of his work to photographing the climate, nature, and lives of people in various parts of Japan, publishing numerous photobooks on the theme of Japan's quintessential landscapes, such as "Musashino," "Tabimado," and "Shinanoji." This book is one of his representative works, published in 1962 by Kurashi no Techo-sha, and is set in the heavy snowfall region of Joetsu, capturing the daily lives of people living with the snow in powerful monochrome from November, when winter truly sets in, until the snow melts in early spring. The lives and work carried out in the harsh natural environment, the villages enveloped in silence, and the magnificent landscapes woven by the snow all possess a deep lyricism and documentary quality in each and every photograph. This book is not merely a collection of landscape photographs, but is also highly regarded as a valuable record that conveys Japan's climate, lifestyle, and culture to future generations.