Pneuma (Signed)

A photo book by Ayaka Endo. This collection features photographs of horses freely roaming the highlands of Tono, Iwate Prefecture.

The title "Pneuma" is an ancient Greek word meaning "breath," "wind," or "spirit." In this book, guided by this word, the artist captures the atmospheric presence between earth and sky, this world and the next, and body and mind.

The setting for the photographs is "Queen's Meadow," a highland in Tono, Iwate Prefecture. This place reconstructs the culture that once existed in Tono, where people and horses lived under one roof, and there, horses run freely across the grasslands without reins or horseshoes, in their natural state.

Horses standing in the landscape, bodies moving through a sea of grass, manes catching the light, and time where the boundary between ground and sky seems to dissolve. Endo photographs, relying on pre-verbal sensations, as if extending her own body into the world. The boundaries between humans and horses, nature and body, viewer and viewed, gently waver.

Designed by Yumi Fujita. This 80-page hardcover book includes 60 color illustrations. Through Endo's unique sense of color and composition, the atmosphere of Tono's landscape and the vitality of the horses are woven together into a single volume. This photo book allows one to feel the invisible "Pneuma" through photography.

[Title] Pneuma
[Publisher] roshin books
[Publication Date] May 2026 (First Edition, 1000 copies)
[Page Count] 80 pages (60 color illustrations)
[Size] Approx. 215*292*9mm / 400g
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese, English
[Title Reading] PUNEUMA
[Author/Editor] Ayaka Endo / Author, Yumi Fujita / Design
[Printing] Yamada Shashin Seihan / Printing
[ISBN] 9784909742100
[Condition] Used [10] Excellent: Like new (signed)
[Accessories] -
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibitions] Ayaka Endo Photography Exhibition "Pneuma" (NONLECTURE books/arts, 2026)

Ayaka Endo (born 1994)

Born in Saitama Prefecture. Photographer.

Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Design in 2018. Completed her Master's degree in Design at Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Fine Arts in 2021. Currently based in London, where she creates her work.

With nature and domestic animals as her main motifs, she explores the connection and intimacy with her subjects through the act of photography. Guided by an animistic view of nature, she creates images where the boundaries between self and other, humans and animals, and reality and unreality gently dissolve. She works across the fields of art, fashion, and commercial photography.

Major solo exhibitions include "Kamuy Mosir" (KITTE Marunouchi, Daikanyama Tsutaya Books, 2021), "The belief in Spiritual Beings" (Nadiff Gallery, 2022), "when I see you, you are luminous" (Tokyo International Gallery, 2023), "Swaying Flowers" (Live Art Gallery, 2023), among others.

Major works include "Pneuma" and others.

Major awards include the Design Award (2018), Ataka Award (2019), Design N Award (2021), and an Honorable Mention in New Cosmos of Photography 2021 (selected by Yuki Onodera, 2021).

< Related Figures >

SPIRAL DANCE, Taisuke Nakano