Poolside

"Poolside"
I think I met Nitta when I was about 23 years old.
I had just been fired from my first job and started working at an apparel manufacturer called TRIP in Osaka.
At the time, Yamada from CINQ, who was producing the catalogue, brought in Nitta as a new photographer.
I remember on the day of my first shoot, I walked across the park and came to the store carrying a large bag.
I still remember one photo that Nitta took using a strobe, and it felt like my first exposure to professional work.
After that, we started seeing each other a few times a year.
I was happy that Yamada and Nitta took me out for drinks after the shoot.
Coming from the countryside, I felt a sense of superiority and pride to meet these two people who shoot for fashion magazines and catalogs.

I left the company I was working for when I turned 30.
I wanted to climb my own mountain, even if it was small.
When I returned to Wakayama, I would open a familiar magazine at a convenience store and look for the words "Kimihiko Nitta" in the photo rather than the contents.
After a while, I stopped seeing the words "Kimihiko Nitta" in familiar magazines.
I knew he had been to Tokyo.
I think it was about 4 or 5 years ago.
On Instagram, Fujimoto, the author of this article, wrote that he was a photographer who had made it onto the cover of a major Tokyo newspaper.
Nitta had begun photographing the covers of fashion magazines from around the country, which were located next to the magazine I was browsing.
I almost cried as I compared myself to the dreams I had one day and the future I hope to one day make come true.
"Poolside" is an exchange diary that interweaves Fujimoto's diary and Nitta's photographs.
Fujimoto's diary describes the worries and sufferings of a middle-aged man as he spends his days at work, with his colleagues, and with his family.
I thought that Nitta must be living a life of similar worries and suffering.
I think "Poolside" is a song of encouragement for people living in the present.
When I started reading, my daughter was excitedly sitting next to me, but by the time I finished, she was asleep with my wife.
For some reason, my father, who I lost early, came up in the story, and his catchphrase, "I've done it," kept going round and round in my head.
"Yes. I understand," I replied in my mind, and finished reading the book.

Poolside, the first release from Poolside Books, is based on an exchange diary that took place over a seven-month period from April to November 2022.
The book alternates between photographs and texts by Tokyo-based photographer Kimihiko Nitta and Osaka-based editor Kazutaka Fujimoto.

We hope that the reading experience will make you feel as if you are in sync with the breathing of these two people who continue to work at the forefront of the magazine industry while also facing their own families.

Details

Magazine name: "Poolside"
Author: Text by Kazutaka Fujimoto, Photos by Kimihiko Nitta
Book Design : Kentaro Nakamura (Studio Kentaro Nakamura)
Publisher: poolside books / Poolside Books Release date: Monday, June 19, 2023
Specifications: 184 pages / full color / B6 variant Price: 1,760 yen (base price 1,600 yen + tax)