Momo Okabe: Bible

"Bible" is the monograph of the Japanese photographer Momo Okabe. This beautiful, red velvet-covered book is a testament to the unwavering complexity of Okabe’s everyday life with her lovers and friends. Alongside their pursuance of a genuine identity and sense of belonging, Okabe unfolds the "sad, yet beautiful scenery that they could perceive after overcoming the long and difficult struggle out from their traumatic past. The sincerity and depth of Okabe’s work is visceral; unwinding a sweetness within the tension of their collective alienation as if she has built a window into a kaleidoscopic heart.

Okabe has been highly acclaimed by Nobuyoshi Araki at New Cosmos of Photography in 1999 and Masafumi Sanai at Epson Color Image in 2009 as well as by many other prestigious competitions in Japan. It is difficult, however, to position Okabe’s work into the norm of contemporary Japanese photography often associated with its perfection in composition and quiet meditation with subjects. Outside of the mainstream photo community, Okabe has pioneered her own electric yet sensitive color pallet to convey her overflowing emotions onto her work. In addition, she shifts away from the overtly intellectualized practice so prevalent in today’s contemporary photography scene and gives photography a refreshed power. “Bible” begins to reposition our critical perspectives towards a regeneration of compassion, intimacy, and camaraderie.

About the artist 

Momo Okabe was born in Japan in 1981 and received her B.F.A. in photography from Nihon University in 2004. She received the Special Award “The 8th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography in 2009 and selected Nobuyoshi Araki,” “P3 art and environment, Tokyo” in 1999 when Okabe was still in high school. Okabe has shown her work in museum nd galeries all around the world.

Photography: Momo Okabe

Design by Momo Okabe & Mika Murai, texts by Ko Kosugi

25 x 36cm

Hardcover, 122 pages

Edition of 300

Published by Session Press in 2014

English