Publisher/Self-Published（私家版）

Google翻訳
This book, "Photobook Existence - Young People with Muscular Dystrophy," is a photobook created by patients with muscular dystrophy. It is a rare disease that develops in childhood, and "as it progresses through adolescence and youth, muscle strength gradually weakens from the muscles closer to the center of the body, eventually forcing patients to live in bed, and often leading to death from heart and respiratory complications" (from the text). The editorial staff of this book, "Group Focus," consists of five people: four patients hospitalized at the National Nishitaga Hospital (now the National Hospital Organization Sendai Nishitaga Hospital) in Sendai, and one photography instructor. The photography was handled by Etsuro Toriumi. The book depicts the symptoms and daily lives of muscular dystrophy patients living in the hospital. Toriumi published the photobook "Eyes in a Wheelchair" in 1971, and this book is a collection of photographs taken since 1971, in which he writes that he "tried to photograph things that are internal." Their declining muscle strength, emaciated bodies, and wheelchair-bound lives, yet their smiles, are deeply moving, but these photographs, taken from the same perspective, possess a purity that sets them apart from objective documentaries.