Archive of affection, obsession by Ai Ezaki

A photobook by Japanese photographer Ai Ezaki.

This book was created by entrusting a decade’s worth of photographs to graphic designer Yuta Murao―someone Ezaki had never met before―and leaving the layout entirely in his hands. Through the act of making a photobook in collaboration with another, Ezaki sought to view the contours of her own practice from an external perspective. Over the course of this process, scenes of Tokyo, meals shared with friends, and self-portraits taken across ten years were reassembled into a new form. The book also includes a reflective essay by the artist, Record of Affection, which contemplates the acts of photographing and making a photobook.

Published in the 15th year of the artist’s career, this book quietly captures not only a personal history but also a broader turning point in time. It is a work imbued with a wistful yet quietly uplifting sense of closure—as if to gently affirm that the Tokyo of the 2010s, and the days once lived there, now belong to the past.

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Title: Archive of affection, obsession
Artist: Ai Ezaki
Design: Yuta Murao
Publisher: Self-published, April 2025
Format: Softcover with dust-jacket, PUR binding
Size: 180 × 251 mm
Pages: 160
Language: Japanese / English
Edition: Limited edition of 150 copies
Price: ¥5,500