Family's Diary

Name: Family's Diary
Brand: 小倉英三郎 / OGURA Eizaburo
Price: 3300 JPY
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A photobook by Eizaburo Ogura, documenting his wife Ryoko's battle with illness and death, and the daily lives of their family during that time. Based on the 1994 "New Cosmos of Photography" Excellence Award-winning work, it was published by Mirai-sha.

Ryoko was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with their second child, leading to childbirth, surgery, discharge, recurrence, and ultimately her death. Ogura turned his camera on his wife and two children, capturing moments of happiness, ordinary life, and the family's transformation due to illness.

The shooting date is inscribed in the lower right corner of each photograph, conveying the family's life progressing within a limited timeframe. As her condition worsened, the intervals between photos and the mood of the images also changed, reflecting the photographer's hesitation to shoot and his inescapable urge to document his own feelings.

In addition to the photographic works, this book includes an afterword by Ogura, Ryoko's diary, Nobuyoshi Araki's "Real Love," and Kotaro Iizawa's "The Endless 'Family'." It is not a story closed by the wife's absence, but rather an observation of a single family's time, including the continuing lives of the father and children thereafter.

Family happiness and loss, the pain of photographing a loved one, and time preserved through photographs. This book does not transform personal events into a beautified narrative, but rather directly captures fluctuating emotions and the details of everyday life. For this work, "Family Diary," Eizaburo Ogura received the 1994 "New Cosmos of Photography" Excellence Award.

[Title] Family Diary
[Publisher] Mirai-sha
[Publication Date] May 15, 1996 (2nd printing)
[Page Count] 78 pages
[Size] Approx. 234 x 206 x 15mm / 530g
[Format] Hardcover with dust jacket
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] KAZOKU NO NIKKI
[Author/Editor, etc.] Eizaburo Ogura / Photos, Text; Nobuyoshi Araki, Kotaro Iizawa / Text; Koji Ise / Book Design; Sonoko Ogura / Cover Illustration
[Printing] Tosho Printing Co., Ltd. / Printing and Binding
[ISBN] 9784624710743
[Condition] Used [5] Good (Slight sunning on top edge of dust jacket, minor staining on top edge, slight age-related tanning on pages, minor damage on top and bottom edges)
[Accessories] Separate booklet
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibitions] -
[Awards] 1994 "New Cosmos of Photography" Excellence Award

Eizaburo Ogura

Photographer. Operates "Oriental Hobby," a camera supply store in Okinawa.

Prompted by his wife Ryoko's illness, he photographed the daily lives surrounding his wife and two children. For "Family Diary," which documented everything from happy moments to hospital time and the family's life after his wife's death, he received the 1994 "New Cosmos of Photography" Excellence Award.

The same work was published as a photobook by Mirai-sha. Through photographs and dates, his wife's diary, and Ogura's own writings, it conveys the photographer's emotions as he tries to confirm the family's existence and the passage of that time.