Juri Ueno – AO AKUA

Author: Juri Ueno
Photographs by: Yuichiro Kobayashi
Genre: Photography/Travel

AO AKUA (Godly Cloud in Hawaiian, or most likely Rainbow) is Japanese actress Juri Ueno’s follow-up to A Piacere. This time around, Juri travels to Maui on an energetic/cleansing trip experience. Accompanying her and in charge of the photos is Yuichiro Kobayashi, who takes the place of Kentaro Shibuya.

What is unique about this project is that this photobook comes with a companion DVD, or maybe it’s the other way around and the DVD comes with this companion book, but in the end this turns into something much more than a simple photobook. Despite its good creative intentions, the book lacks the chance to use many beautiful photos and uses a few too many snapshots for my taste, which prove to be cute, but not really artistic.

Who ends up showing their artistic side? None other than Ueno, who grabs the paint brush and her oils to paint, her crayons to doodle, her camera to shoot, and even delved into helping the design team work on this book.

Rating:  

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