Assembly.
Photographs by Osamu Yokonami.
Self Published, 2012.
68 pp.,
illustrated throughout,
7¼x10¼".
Assembly is a playful exploration of a group of young girls moving in unison - jumping, running and twirling - in various natural landscapes. The photographer employs an enticing color palette reminiscent of Japanese watercolor paintings. The gentle, muted colors provide soft backgrounds from which the subjects stand out - allowing the viewer to pause on the angular features and positions of the subjects within the frame. Subtle idiosyncrasies become more noticeable through this technique. In one plate, the assembly is photographed with blankets covering their heads - but one girl’s head curiously pokes out from beneath. Their faces are either abstracted by the camera’s position or just too small to make out any detail. These are not photographs about any of the girls - but about all of them, together, moving in these landscapes as a single body. Their matching clothing suggests the girls are dressed in uniform for grade school, aiming to homogenize them.
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