Description
I, Oblomov is an ode to the novel Oblomov, written in the mid-19th century by the Russian writer Ivan Goncharov. More than 150 years later, it still remains a key to deciphering the Russian mentality, which for centuries has both perplexed and captivated foreign travelers in the region.
In this book, I offer my own interpretation of this distinctly Russian phenomenon through a series of self-portraits and interior photographs taken over the course of my travels in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. As the images show, I often found myself lying down for long periods, overcome by depression, laziness, bad weather or hangover – evidence that after nine years of living in the former USSR, Oblomovshchina can also become the reality of a Japanese photographer. All the notes to the photographs were quoted from the novel Oblomov. (Ikuru Kuwajima)
Edition of 500, Russian, English language, 144 pages, 21×18 cm
Oblomov was written be Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov and originally published in 1859/ Marian Schwartz’s translation of Oblomov was last published byYale University Press in 2010.