MOEKO ISHIGURO’S “Notation(s)” will be released in advance at KYOTOGRAPHIE PHOTOBOOK FAIR 2026.

05/01/2026

©︎Moeko Ishiguro / Notation(s)

This artist book invites the reader to follow the process through which the artist organizes and comes to understand her own sensations and imaginings by visually notating, through geometric forms, the feelings she holds toward the scenes she photographs in daily life.

In 2024, Ishiguro participated in the “PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT” workshop and began working toward the production of a photobook. Starting from abstract sensations, she repeatedly reorganized the sequence and continued experimenting with form. Through this process, what had once existed only as a vague presence gradually gained contour, eventually settling into a tangible form.

At first glance, the book does not readily appear to be a conventional photobook. It presents itself as a white volume composed of multiple black-and-white shapes arranged across its surface. The book is structured as a series of gatefold pages: the notations appear on the outside, while the photographs are placed inside. Only by opening the pages are the photographs revealed.

By temporarily concealing the photograph — a visual form that is often received intuitively — and foregrounding instead a structured visual language of shapes, the work attempts to reconsider what is seen from a slight distance.

The main body consists of one hundred photographs and one hundred corresponding notation diagrams. Each diagram is created by selecting and arranging forms from a set of sixty simple shapes that anyone could draw. For every photograph, there is one notation. However, these combinations are not presented as fixed or absolute. The form a diagram takes may vary depending on the viewer, or even for the same person at a different moment or in a different state.

The notation functions as a tool for visually recording sensations that resist complete translation into words: instability, curiosity, fleeting questions, and subtle presences sensed in front of the artist. Through this process, personal and at times abstract impressions are transformed into a form that can be shared with others.

The cover itself also departs from conventional structure. Thirty thin sheets of paper are layered to envelop the book. On the flaps of this layered cover, the shapes, their names, and the numbers of the photographs in which they appear are listed, forming a structure that can be read like a small booklet.

Although the content of each copy is identical, each of the one hundred books carries a different title. Every title points to one of the one hundred photographs contained within. In this way, a single body of work is given one hundred distinct points of entry.

As readers move back and forth between notation and photograph, they cannot fully decipher what each shape represents without consulting the index of shapes at the back or the layered cover on which they are listed one by one. The gradual act of tracing and cross-referencing becomes part of the experience itself — suggesting both the difficulty and the depth involved in understanding another person’s way of sensing and perceiving.

This artist book will be available for advance sale at the KYOTOGRAPHIE PHOTOBOOK FAIR 2026, held on May 9 (Sat) and 10 (Sun), 2026. The fair will be the first opportunity to see the book in person.

During the fair, copies will be available for immediate purchase and pickup at the venue. A related talk event, “The Artist Book as Structure,” will also take place at the same venue on May 9 (Sat), from 13:00 to 14:00.
In conjunction with this publication, Moeko Ishiguro’s solo exhibition, “Notation(s),” will be held at Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery from June 13 (Sat) to 21 (Sun), 2026.

Details regarding online sales will be announced at a later date. Thank you for your patience.

There are moments when something I see opens into an endless current of imagination.

In this book, I have tried to share how I receive what appears before me, and what kinds of sensations and imaginings arise from it.

Looking back at the scenes I photograph in everyday life, I notice that they always contain a small moment that draws my gaze or a thought. The view does not simply pass by. Something lingers, almost imperceptibly, within perception.

I think of this as a subtle friction between what is there and myself.

The outer world and my inner sensations never fully coincide. A slight shift remains. It is this small divergence that gives rise to imagination, and becomes a point from which I begin to engage with what I see.

When I attempt to describe this sensation in words alone, it is inevitably drawn toward specific meanings or situations, and the experience itself slips away. Perhaps this is because the sensation takes on a different form for each person, remaining wide and abstract.

For that reason, I began to translate this feeling into simple shapes — a form of notation.

Through this notation, the instability, curiosity, fleeting questions, and subtle presences that arise in front of me are given a visual form. By placing these shapes alongside photographs, I try to transform something intangible into something that can be shared.

I sometimes wonder whether there is a quiet form of retreat in my repeated attention to such scenes. By letting my imagination slip in, perhaps I am cushioning information whose direct impact would otherwise be exhausting to me. For me, imagining is also a way of adjusting my distance from the world.

To me, even a single view can feel slightly heavy with information. A familiar street shifts — a tree cut down, something left behind, a new object placed there. These small changes create a faint pause within perception. Each time, almost without thinking, I begin to imagine, creating a space between myself and what I see.

This notation is a way for me to gather what I have received and to understand it. At the same time, I hope it may also serve as a quiet guide — an opening through which the reader may begin to notice the sensations and imaginings that arise in their own encounter with what appears before them.

Text by Moeko Ishiguro

“Notation(s)” – Artist Book Overview

・Edition: Limited to 100 copies, each signed and numbered
*Each of the 100 copies has a different title based on one of the photographs in this book.
・Photography, Text, Design & Editing: Moeko Ishiguro
・Notation Diagrams: Moeko Ishiguro
・Editorial Support & Project Development: Yumi Goto, Reminders Photography Stronghold
・English Translation Support: Maximilian Kieberl
・Printing: Cent Graphic Co., Ltd.
・Binding: Tenpaku Seihonshikou Co., Ltd.
・Cover Printing and Assembly: Moeko Ishiguro
・Size: 120 mm × 160 mm × 20–70 mm
・Pages: 202 pages + accordion-fold insert, diagram notes
・Weight: approx. 420 g
・Language: Japanese and English
・Price: ¥14,300, tax included, shipping not included