Lieko Shiga: Lilly

Lieko Shiga's "Lilly" is a photobook that compiles photographs she produced in London between 2003 and 2005. Along with "CANARY," which was published around the same time, it is one of her representative early works, and won the 33rd Kimura Ihei Photography Award.

This book contains three series: "Lilly / Damien Court," which features residents of the Damien Court and Tomlinson Close social housing estates in East London; "Jacques saw me tomorrow morning," in which he invited residents of the Calvert estate in South London into his room; and "Piano," an early work featuring his younger brother.

Living in a foreign country, and facing uncertainty, Shiga has taken to the subject of his photographs, focusing on the distance and relationship between himself and his subjects. Using the limited spaces of residential spaces and housing complexes as his backdrop, his photographs vividly capture the tension, confusion, and disconnect between the photographer and the subject, creating a distinctive composition that simultaneously evokes feelings of intimacy and alienation. His subjects are not limited to friends and housemates, but also include residents he encounters by chance, with the act of photography itself functioning as an attempt to communicate with others.

Furthermore, re-photographing and staged techniques are used throughout this book, intentionally interweaving documentary and fictional elements. Photographs are not simply records of events; they are treated as devices for reconstructing relationships and time, with a consistent approach to expression that blurs the boundaries between reality and composition. Images in which people emerge against black backgrounds and the tension of enclosed spaces form an important foundation for Shiga Lieko's photographic expression.

"Lilly" is a book that condenses Shiga Lieko's methodology and awareness of issues from before she developed into her later large-scale projects, and it sharply presents the distance from others, the ethics of the photographic act, and the relationship between composition and improvisation. It is not only one of her early representative works, but also a photobook that is positioned as an important work that demonstrates an experimental approach in contemporary photography.

[Title] Lilly
[Publisher] Art Beat Publishers [Publication Date] 2008 (2nd printing)
[Number of pages] Unpaginated [Size] Approx. 21 x 30 x 1.5 cm, 0.95 kg
[Format] Hardcover [Title reading] Lily [Author/Editor] Rieko Shiga/Photography, Shigeo Goto/Editor, Hideki Nakajima/Art direction and design [ISBN] 978-4-902080-13-1
[Condition] Used, average condition (slight tears on the edge of the cover, slight discoloration on three sides)
[Accessories] Booklet (obi missing)
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