Okabe, Momo: My Bloody Hand

A journey of looking at life — something that exists somewhere out there, yet rests in the palm of one’s hand.

This book is composed of two bodies of photographs. The first half consists of images captured during a period when Okabe, following a miscarriage, collected her own blood and repeatedly observed it through a microscope late at night. This act carries the same underlying attitude found in her previous work "Ilmatar" (2020), in which she approached her pregnancy and childbirth—made possible through assisted reproductive technology and her own body—as though conducting an “experiment”. The images that appear beneath the microscope seem to be attempting to take shape, or perhaps collapsing out of form altogether. They unfold in vivid colors, at times resembling astronomical photographs of planetary surfaces or nebulae. Turning the pages becomes an act of retracing Okabe’s quiet pursuit of a distant, unreachable place.

Passing through these endless, journey-like images, the second half shifts to photographs centered on Okabe’s children. They appear as mysterious life-forms beyond our full understanding, yet undeniably present at her side. Okabe regards them not within the framework of “family”, but as individual others—as one of many stray, ungraspable forms of life. What is reflected in their eyes, and where are they headed? The landscape photographs that occasionally appear between images of the children and Okabe’s own body stand silently, suggesting that this is not a final destination, but a journey that continues without end.

Born in Tokyo in 1981, photographer Momo Okabe has long produced work deeply tied to the course of her own life, leaving behind striking and unforgettable images. Her books "Dildo" (2013) and "Bible" (2014), which document intimate relationships with sexual minority partners and friends, along with the reality that lies beside them, earned her the Paul Huf Award (FOAM Museum, Amsterdam, 2015). "Ilmatar," published next, wove into its structure the record of her own IVF pregnancy and childbirth. MY BLOODY HAND, her fourth photobook, is published with the same sense of weight and material presence as her previous works. By holding the contradictions and complexities of the world exactly as they are—and by revealing what cannot be seen unless one chooses to truly look—Okabe’s photographs ensure that those who encounter them cannot remain unscathed.