Sayonara Setsuko (Ltd to 125 copies)

Charles Johnstone
Sayonara Setsuko (Ltd to 125 copies)

Photographs: Charles Johnstone

Text: Charles Johnstone

Publisher: Sun Editions

30 pages

Pictures: 24

Year: 2018

ISBN: 978-0-692-97269-4

Comments: Soft cover, Japanese biding and folding, colors photographs from Polaroids film. Signed and limited to 125 copies!

Setsuko Hara was an actress who made a small handful of incredible films that Johnstone remembers from his youth. She disappeared from public life decades ago before passing away in 2015. Johnstone builds a shrine, a, elegy and a sincere thank you to the myth and work of Hara in his book. Inside, the polaroid images of Hara acting are pulled from TV screens and speaks about nostalgia and idolization. There is a haunting element within the images as the drips in the polaroid condition the overall image to be reminiscent of the body and its decline. There is a biological function to the "error". Haunting, elegant and a bit obsessive. This one of three volumes from Johnstone working in this process.

"Brad Feuerhelm"