For the version of Son Album by Japanese publisher T&M Project see Yamamoto Masao – Son album

“The sheep village” – Yamamoto Masao
“I walk in the wind of a mountain road and listen to the harmony that flows from the ridge line. A group of goats draws white dots on the slope.
This is a bit difficult for a Japanese to understand. The sheep are only cattle here. S., the young farmer who allowed me to photograph his lambs, told me that he goes down to work part of the time in the city because he cannot make a living from his sheep farm. However, on my next visit, he was also starting to raise chickens for eggs. He had finally decided to stay in the mountains and make a living there.
M. and G. have a herd of mohair goats in the mountain. He takes care of the goats and she designs and produces beautiful objects with their wool: blankets, scarves and sweaters. They are colorful and extremely soft. I took some pictures of this couple and their goats on these heights. The place made a wonderful shooting studio with its wide-open perspective on the mountains. I keep with happiness a mohair object that they offered me. Unfortunately, they are thinking of leaving the mountains next year and going to live elsewhere. Taking care of these delicate mohair goats is hard work and they don’t want their children to do the same thing they did.”

Yamamoto Masao was born in 1957 in Gamagori, a small coastal town in the province of Aichi, Japan.
After studying visual arts, he turned to photography. He had his first exhibitions in Japan in the early 90s, but it was in the United States, where he exhibited regularly from 1994 onwards, that he enjoyed real success and that his artistic career took on an international dimension. In 1998, he published his first book with Nazraeli Press, a Portland-based publisher renowned for the quality of its production. Several remarkable books will be the fruit of this collaboration.

Marie-Hélène Lafon is an associate professor of Classics and chose to teach in a middle school located in a Priority Education Zone. She began writing in 1996. Her first novel, “Le Soir du chien”, was awarded the Renaudot prize for high school students. She chaired the literary prize of the high school students of Compiègne in 2003-2004. “Histoires” won the Goncourt short story award in 2016.
In her works, she sometimes refers “to the readings that have nourished me, to the authors, to the languages especially, Louis Calaferte, Gustave Flaubert, Jean Genet…”