• Book offered exclusively in France for Utile & Ordinaire •

Published by the Tokyo-based label Bookshop M, established since 2005, which emphasizes the quality of the papers used and the design of the photo books .

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Ai Iwane's photo book "Coho Come Home" captures life in Petrolia, California, a small community founded by flower children near the Mattole River.

Iwane, who first visited Petrolia in 1991 , focuses on the relationship of local people with native coho salmon: The Mattole Valley was one of the first places in the United States where grassroots activism restored native salmon populations.

In the fall of 2020, the Bear River tribe revived the traditional salmon ceremony for the first time in 118 years.

"As a teenager, when I first went to study in the United States in 1991, I knew nothing of the hard work of the valley's inhabitants to welcome the return of the salmon, but 30 years later, I had the opportunity to experience a new and wonderful encounter with the Mattole people."
- excerpt from Ai Iwane's afterword (included in Japanese and English)

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Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Ai Iwane is a photographer who studied in the United States at Petrolia High School , an alternative school located in Northern California , where she led an autonomous, off-grid life while studying.

She began her photography career in 1996. While focusing on assignments for magazines and various music-related projects, she concentrated on observing and documenting niche communities around the world . In 2006, she focused her attention on the lifestyle of Japanese people living in Hawaii.

Since 2013, she has been partly based in Miharu, Fukushima ; her work in recent years has primarily focused on the connection between Hawaii and Fukushima as embodied by immigrants.

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Features

Each copy is signed by the photographer

Size 168 × 237 mm

32 pages, 33 photos

Softcover

Publication date: 2024

Texts in English and Japanese.