Approaching Whiteness by Rinko Kawauchi | Tokyo (JAP) | By Emma Harrison

Japanese born photographer Rinko Kawauchi shot to worldwide acclaim in 2002 after the release of three photographic books, Utatane, Hanabi and Hanako. Her work explores the minutiae of everyday life and brings the mundane into sharp focus through pastel-hued and light-infused images. Kawauchi’s keen eye for detail and desire to ‘draw senses’ is perfectly encapsulated in Approaching Whiteness, a visually arresting photobook published by Tokyo based photography press, Goliga, on traditional Japanese scrolls.

Each scroll is presented as a sequence of frames and the images appear from right to left in order to reenact the passage of time and the interconnectedness of still life. Kawauchi’s images unnerve and delight; they feel so familiar in subject yet are forcibly obscured by their ambitious intimacy. In this series the known becomes the unknown and the observer is forced to reassess and look again.

Printed on Japanese paper by Awagami, each scroll wraps around a Katsura pole and is encased in a Paulownia wood box with laser-cut lettering. Approaching Whiteness is presented under nine themes that centre around a single word: Candle, Deer, Boasts, Eclipse, Stairs, Goldfish, Sakura, Diamond Dust and Lotus with each scroll stamped by the artist herself.

To order Approaching Whiteness, visit Goliga’s website.

Haru and Mina Photobook by Hideaki Hamada | Hyogo (JAP)

In order to capture the growth and development of his children Haru and Mina, Hideaki Hamada began to take photographs of the pair from birth through to the present day. In December 2012, the wealth of images were individually selected and collated into a photobook entitled Haru and Mina, published by Riburoarute. Born in Aawaji Island, in Japan's Hyogo Prefecture, Hamada is a relatively new freelance photographer and only began to work with this camera full time in September 2012. Starting his photography career at age 35, Hamada has since enjoyed great success and has published work in leading publications such as Kinfolk magazine (USA) and The Big Issue (Taiwan).

Hamada explains, "children always act more than I expect. The inspiration for my photography comes from this sort of behaviour. Though I direct some of my photographs, in most cases I take pictures of my children just as they are. When I take photos of my children, the important thing is to maintain an objective perspective. Not too close, but also not too far away, as if I am watching them from behind. My photos are the best gift for their future. They will be a time machine for them.”

Haru and Mina is due for release in October 2014 and is available for pre order and purchase on Hamada's website.

52 Weeks 52 Cities by Iwan Baan | Amsterdam (NL)

Developed exclusively for German museum Marta Herford, Dutch photographer Iwan Baan completed a one-year photographic journey around the world. Known for challenging a long-standing tradition of depicting buildings as isolated and static, architectural photographer Baan represents people in architecture and highlights building enviornments in order to communicate the relationship between human and architecture and between socialisation and its spatial situation.

The exhibition 52 Weeks, 52 Cities features photographs of each week of last year accompanied by personally spoken commentaries by Baan. The extensive list of locations visited by Baan includes Dallas (USA), Larabanga (Northern Ghana), Allahabad (India) and Setonomori (Japan).

Accompanying the exhibition is a book published by Kehrer Verlag and designed by Another Something & Company.

Photography by Benjamin Van Witsen

'Free Dive' Series by Kanoa Zimmerman | Fiji

This stunning photography collection is by the well-travelled and San Francisco based photographer Kanoa Zimmerman whose Free Dive series documents his adventure to a set of islands in Northwest Fiji. The series is composed of monochromatic shots of deep sea divers, spear-fishers and their prey in the vast underwater universe encapsulated in this breathtaking set. Zimmerman, unlike other underwater photographers, chose to keep a simple colour scheme by muting the multihued nature of underwater life and the striking scene frames were achieved by sinking below his subjects to catch them at a higher angle.

Zimmerman’s underwater imagery transforms the viewer's gaze to that of an aquatic explorer navigating a dark and vast terrain with only the centralised subject as a source of light.

Closed Cities by Gregor Sailer | Tyrol (AUT)

The phrase 'closed city' was a term originally coined for restricted soviet settlements that remained off the radar and removed from any maps until the beginning of the century. Using the idea of a closed or restricted space as his starting point, Austrian photographer Gregor Sailer began his Closed Cities photo series in 2009 and travelled to areas sealed off by politically and geographically hostile landscapes.

The Closed Cities book, designed by Manuel Radde, documents images from regions in Siberia, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Chile, Algeria/Western Sahara and Argentina. Although no people appear in Sailer's photographs the shots are mainly taken in inhabited urban zones such as private residential areas, military sites and refugee camps. The series contains traces of everyday existence that undo the sparse and desolate nature of Sailer's imagery; if you look closely you can see laundry hanging outside concrete desert shelters and graffiti sprawled across the communal eating area of a factory.

Towards the back of the book sits a map that identifies the cities by their respective function; Diamond City, Refugee City, Oil City, Gas City, Copper City and Gated New Town alongside three short essays written by Margit Zuckriegl, Walter Moser and Wencke Hertzsch. The essays discuss Sailer's photography as a form of investigative art and also examine the sociology behind closed living.