• Playground 4 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 4 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 9 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 9 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 10 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 10 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 8 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 8 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 6 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 6 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 5 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 5 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 3 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 3 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 2 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 2 © Carine Thévenau
  • Playground 11 © Carine Thévenau
    Playground 11 © Carine Thévenau
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This photographer's new book explores the beauty of Japanese playgrounds

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‘Seasonal Abandonment of Imaginary Worlds’ by photographer Carine Thévenau is a new book published by Editions that depicts aging Japanese playgrounds in rural Japan. 

Playground 9 © Carine Thévenau
Playground 9 © Carine Thévenau

The playscapes are either abandoned or empty due to seasonal snowfall, but the absence of life creates a space, ripe for the imagination. Although the playgrounds may arouse a nostalgic sensation, a more critical analysis reveals a portrait of place and offers us a glimpse of spacetime paused, yet actively in motion.

Playground 3 © Carine Thévenau
Playground 3 © Carine Thévenau

The series explores urban spatial narratives and “Ma”, the Japanese word (and concept) for absence through space and time. There is no translation in English for the word “Ma”, however it refers to the space between or negative space between physical matter, where life and emotion can exist.

Thévenau interprets the emptiness or “ma”, within the playgrounds, as a silence or tension, akin to the pause in a music score or the interval of a theatrical play; what came before, what is there now and what comes afterwards?

The abandoned playgrounds, as they appear here, are the residue of an aging Japanese population, yet hint towards the rising Satori (Enlightened) Generation, who value vintage over shiny new designer goods and a slower pace of life. The playgrounds reveal economic shifts and Japanese cultural philosophies towards nature, respect, waste and sustainability, as the playgrounds pictured here, are objects of a longer life cycle than the playgrounds of the West.

Playground 5 © Carine Thévenau
Playground 5 © Carine Thévenau

Each jungle gym or slide set appears to be gracefully decaying. There is no graffiti or damage to the playgrounds, allowing the possibility of further interaction, whether for child’s play or otherwise. Thévenau describes the neglected play spaces as a crease in an origami-like structure of spacetime, actively folding into new time frames and thus new landscapes.

The release will see a limited book release (a First Edition of 500 including 25 Special Edition signed and numbered copies with an origami print). 

Book details 

Hardcover with natural cloth spine 48 pages - 32 color photographs 8.3in x 10.2in (21cm x 26cm) 
First Edition Book ‒ US$ 40.00 / AU$ 50.00 Special Edition Book ‒ US$ 100.00 / AU$ 120.00

More information about the book can be found here.

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