(Summer Sale) We

A photobook portraying people living in Saitama City, created by Canadian photographer Mark Peckmezian, Moldovan photographer Olya Oleinic, and six elementary-school pupils from the city for PARTNERS STUDIO, a publishing project centered on the idea of partnership.

A photobook portraying people living in Saitama City, created by Canadian photographer Mark Peckmezian, Moldovan photographer Olya Oleinic, and six elementary-school pupils from the city for PARTNERS STUDIO, a publishing project centered on the idea of partnership.

Over the course of approximately one week, Peckmezian approached passersby near the exits of Omiya Station and photographed them in a natural manner reminiscent of fashion street photography. Oleinic followed the organic flow of personal connections, travelling by bicycle to homes and offices. Originally planning to stay for around ten days, she ultimately spent two intensive weeks interviewing and photographing participants.

Six fourth-grade pupils from the Elementary School Attached to Saitama University also joined the project as photographers of their own families. Editor Takuto Kawashima, together with Asuka Kojin and Kenji Minamikawa of the artist collective me, visited the school to lead a special class on the question, “What is a portrait?” The pupils then discussed the meaning of family photographs before making their own images.

Presented under the title Portrait Project, the works were installed in a two-by-two-metre frame at the Saitama Triennale 2023, with a different image shown on each of the exhibition's 65 days. Hans Gremmen of Fw:Books is among the book's art directors.

—

Title: We
Artist: Mark Peckmezian, Olya Oleinic, Pupils of Saitama University Elementary School
Editor: Takuto Kawashima (partners magazine / kontakt)
Art Director: Hans Gremmen, Yoshihisa Tanaka (centre inc.)
Contributors: Meruro Washida (Director, Towada Art Center), Takashi Serizawa (Producer, Saitama Triennale 2023), Chris Kozwolski Moore (Writer), Rei Sakai (Creative Director), Kazuko Yasui (Art Coordinator), Kenji Minamikawa (Director, [me])
Publisher: PARTNERS STUDIO, 2025
Format: Softcover with flaps
Size: 161 × 220 mm
Pages: 328
Edition: Limited edition of 1,000 copies
ISBN: 978-1-0684257-0-7