Brian Kanagaki

Brian Kanagaki is an art director and photographer living and working in New York City. Along with his wife Amy, he runs the black and white publishing imprint Soft Copy.

Golden Persimmons II

Golden Persimmons II is a continuation of an ongoing documentary project spanning 6 years. The self-titled book (‘Golden Persimmons’ – a rough Japanese to English translations of ‘Kanagaki’) is a visual catalogue of Kanagaki’s life and neighborhood shown in 3 parts. The brutalist black and white photographs depict lonely settings; vacant shop fronts, unfinished industrial scenes, empty rooms, and isolated still lifes.

Kanagaki’s laconic, no-frills approach to photography and design accurately translate his practice into art book form. The reductive style of the photographs is carefully constructed to feel like staged scenes devoid of human contact and interaction. The simplistic, graphic aesthetic lives somewhere between product photography and documentary snapshot.

Golden Persimmons II contains photographs from the last 3 years that span multiple cities; New York, London, Copenhagen, Saugerties, and Kanagaki’s hometown of Vacaville, California.

To view more of Brian Kanagaki’s work please visit his website.