Mikiko Hara photographs strangers at close range: a young man on a train, a couple holding hands, a little girl playing in a park. She catches the instant just before, as she presses the shutter; sometimes their eyes meet briefly, but she does not exchange with her subjects. The portraits nonetheless feel infinitely personal, as if photographer and subject were bound by an invisible pact — being in the right place at the right time. Hara uses an Ikonta camera without a viewfinder. “The camera lens is more honest, simpler, more unruffled and unforgiving than my own eyes,” she explains.

Small Myths, published by Chose Commune in November 2022, gathers unpublished photographs made between 1996 and 2021. The selection was made by the publisher in collaboration with the artist, with editorial direction by Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi, design by Bureau Kayser and Chose Commune, and text by Mikiko Hara. Hara’s approach is rooted in documenting everyday life and extends into the intimacy of her living space: cut flowers in the sink, a strawberry shortcake in the fridge, her three sons dozing on the floor. Her eye — she is also a mother and wife — moves between outside and inside, public and private sphere.

The book contains 104 pages and 57 plates, measures 23 by 27 centimeters, and is a section-sewn OTA-bound softcover with flaps, with text in French, English, and Japanese. Hara was born in 1967 in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, studied at the Tokyo College of Photography, and was awarded the Kimura Ihei Award in 2017. She is represented by Miyako Yoshinaga gallery (New York, USA), Osiris (Tokyo, Japan), and Ibasho gallery (Antwerp, Belgium).