1ā — LA Tomari, first edition, 2009

1ā is a quiet and luminous photobook by Japanese photographer LA Tomari, published in a limited edition of 500 copies by WALL in 2009. Its cover, minimalist and matte, carries only a small cluster of global time zones and a single elongated syllable — “1ā” — hinting at a poetics of distance, drift, and simultaneity. The photographs inside unfold as a visual travelogue suspended in time: not reportage, not diary, but something between the two — cool, still, and unanchored.

Shot across multiple geographies but never tethered to place, Tomari’s work reflects a gentle cosmopolitanism — a gaze that touches surfaces lightly, noticing light, texture, and passing gestures. Designed by Masami Fuseya and translated by Miles Yebisu, the book is a material object of care, its rough-textured paper and restrained typography evoking the independent print culture of early 2000s Tokyo.

There is no spectacle here, no hard edges — just a photographic language built on inference, echo, and understated rhythm. 1ā belongs in Darwin for how it resists both travel photography clichés and conceptual overstatement, offering instead an ambient and deeply tactile experience of looking.

Technical Sheet
Title: 1ā
Artist / Author: LA Tomari
Date: 2009
Technique / Printing Method: Offset
Medium / Materials: Softcover, textured wraps
Dimensions (cm): approx. 21 × 29.7 (A4)
Language: Japanese, with English translation
Pages: Unnumbered
Publisher / Editor: WALL
Edition: First edition, 500 copies
ISBN: 4-9902835-7-0
Condition: Very good