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Book tip: Infinity Complex Landscape
Book tip: Infinity Complex Landscape
February 27, 2026
The cover already introduces the “infinity complex landscapes” Yoshie Itasaka is dealing with in her new book: a bright cornfield and a clear sky share the cover, make reference to the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag. The fact that the country likes to be known as the corn basket of Europe, or even the world, lies in Ukraine’s fertile soil, which, before Russia’s current war of aggression, made it one of the largest of grain exporters. The photo book opens with further quiet landscape motifs, before turning to the lives of its people. Pictures show architecture and monuments, but above all, marketplaces with typical local products and vendors at their stalls.
The Japanese photographer (born 1984) deliberately takes a different path to raise awareness of Ukraine among her viewers. In contrast to many other current photo books, which focus on the brutal Russian invasion and its consequences, she takes the time to convey a sort of cultural history of Ukraine through moments of everyday life: “Those who wish to help Ukraine must first understand Ukraine,” Kimitaka Matsuzato writes in his accompanying text. The pictures in this book were taken between 2014 and 2019 – in other words, at the time when Russia had occupied Crimea and its attack on the whole of Ukraine had not yet happened –, during various trips, including to Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol and Crimea. Itsaka’s approach is shaped by an awareness of how much the wars of the past – the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union – continue to shape the political and emotional landscapes of the present.
Itasaka’s work is based on a long-term examination of subjects such as collective memory, post-Soviet identity, and historical trauma in Middle and Eastern Europe. Starting from an understanding of Japan’s own history, which has itself experienced times of militarism and collective trauma, the photographer reflects on universal patterns that emerge when societies are defined by ideologies, fear and concepts imposed by others. She sees her book as a visual essay that aims to create a space for empathy, understanding and conscious behaviour. “Through this photo book, I wish to convey a deep longing for a past that can no longer be reclaimed; steadfast hope for a better future; and the belief that those outside the conflict have a responsibility that cannot be ignored,” Itasaka explains. Her intent is to mediate because, even after war, history continues. Courage, rather than neutrality, is called for: “A moral courage, namely the courage to engage, to listen, and to intervene – not with weapons, but with wisdom.” A noble aspiration – and a photo book we can hope will fall into the right hands.
Ulrich RüterThe Japanese photographer (born 1984) deliberately takes a different path to raise awareness of Ukraine among her viewers. In contrast to many other current photo books, which focus on the brutal Russian invasion and its consequences, she takes the time to convey a sort of cultural history of Ukraine through moments of everyday life: “Those who wish to help Ukraine must first understand Ukraine,” Kimitaka Matsuzato writes in his accompanying text. The pictures in this book were taken between 2014 and 2019 – in other words, at the time when Russia had occupied Crimea and its attack on the whole of Ukraine had not yet happened –, during various trips, including to Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol and Crimea. Itsaka’s approach is shaped by an awareness of how much the wars of the past – the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union – continue to shape the political and emotional landscapes of the present.
Itasaka’s work is based on a long-term examination of subjects such as collective memory, post-Soviet identity, and historical trauma in Middle and Eastern Europe. Starting from an understanding of Japan’s own history, which has itself experienced times of militarism and collective trauma, the photographer reflects on universal patterns that emerge when societies are defined by ideologies, fear and concepts imposed by others. She sees her book as a visual essay that aims to create a space for empathy, understanding and conscious behaviour. “Through this photo book, I wish to convey a deep longing for a past that can no longer be reclaimed; steadfast hope for a better future; and the belief that those outside the conflict have a responsibility that cannot be ignored,” Itasaka explains. Her intent is to mediate because, even after war, history continues. Courage, rather than neutrality, is called for: “A moral courage, namely the courage to engage, to listen, and to intervene – not with weapons, but with wisdom.” A noble aspiration – and a photo book we can hope will fall into the right hands.
All images on this page: © Yoshie Itasaka
Yoshie Itasaka: Infinity Complex Landscape+-
With a text by Kimitaka Matsuzato
288 pages, 185 colour images
16.5 x 23 cm, English
Kehrer
