Pneuma (Signed)

A photobook by Ayaka Endo. This collection captures the essence of horses roaming freely in the highlands of Tono, Iwate Prefecture.

The title "Pneuma" is an ancient Greek word meaning "breath," "wind," and "spirit." This book uses that word as a clue to portray the atmosphere that exists between earth and sky, this world and the next, and body and mind.

The setting for the photographs is "Queen's Meadow," a highland in Tono, Iwate Prefecture. It is a place that recreates the culture that once existed in Tono, where people and horses lived under the same roof, and where horses now run freely across the grasslands without reins or horseshoes, in their natural state.

Horses standing in the landscape, bodies moving through a sea of grass, manes catching the light, and time as the boundary between ground and sky blurs. Endo photographs by relying on sensations that precede language, extending her own body into the world. The boundaries between humans and horses, nature and body, and observer and observed gently waver.

Designed by Yumi Fujita. This 80-page hardcover book contains 60 color illustrations. Endo's unique sense of color and composition weave together the landscape of Tono and the life force of the horses into a single volume. It is a collection that allows one to feel the invisible "Pneuma" through photographs.

[Title] Pneuma
[Publisher] roshin books
[Publication Date] May 2026 (First Edition, 1000 copies)
[Page Count] 80 pages (60 color illustrations)
[Size] Approx. 215 * 292 * 9mm / 400g
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese, English
[Title Reading] PNEUMA
[Author/Editor] Ayaka Endo / Author, Yumi Fujita / Design
[Printing] Yamada Photo Engraving / Printing
[ISBN] 9784909742100
[Condition] Used [10] Pristine: Like New (Signed)
[Accessories] -
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibition] Ayaka Endo Photo Exhibition "Pneuma" (NONLECTURE books/arts, 2026)

Ayaka Endo (born 1994)

Born in Saitama Prefecture. Photographer.

Graduated from the Department of Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2018. Completed her master's degree in Design, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2021. Currently based in London.

Her main motifs are nature and livestock, and she explores connection and intimacy with her subjects through the act of photography. Drawing on an animistic view of nature, she creates images where the boundaries between self and other, human and animal, and reality and unreality gently melt away. She works across the fields of art, fashion, and commercial photography.

Major solo exhibitions include "Kamuy Mosir" (KITTE Marunouchi, Daikanyama Tsutaya Books, 2021), "The belief in Spiritual Beings" (Nadiff Gallery, 2022), "when I see you, you are luminous" (Tokyo International Gallery, 2023), and "Swaying Flowers" (Live Art Gallery, 2023).

Major works include "Pneuma."

Major awards include the Geidai Design Award (2018), Ataka Award (2019), Geidai Design N Award (2021), and an honorable mention at New Cosmos of Photography 2021 (selected by Yuki Onodera, 2021).

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