Literature

Ishiuchi Miyako's photo book Apartment, is a continuation of the visual exploration of her childhood and the small town of Yokosuka where she grew up. 1970s Japan was a time of great economic prosperity, and through this prosperity, social change. Old, comfortable traditions were quickly being replaced by new ways of living.

Ishiuchi explores these social changes through the lens of the apartment buildings in Yokosuka. Before the economic boom, many citizens from the rural countryside would travel to metropolitan areas for work, commonly living in communal apartments. As these building were being razed and replaced with newer, more "modern" buildings, this communal way of life began to disappear.

Ishiuchi's Apartment documents the comforts of these shared living spaces - showing collections of shoes by a door way, bicycles in shared storage, and tenants in their rooms. The graininess of her images portrays a sensation of sad nostalgia, yet also a grating contact with reality.