Everybody carries some psychological pain in their mind or heart, some more of it, some less.
There are many who cannot escape from it.
For me, there is nothing I can do but take their photos. I cannot save them, and I cannot be saved.
This is a story about the pain of my mother, my sister, my girlfriend, of my pain and that of the women I have encountered.
— Takamoto Yamauchi

Using two types of black ink, the photos that make up this work as well as the cover surrounding it have been printed on Japan’s finest ultra high-gloss paper.
The end paper has been printed in three colors (two types of black ink, one silver), on jet-black paper even darker than the ink, giving the impression of a tonally inversed print.
The book was bound traditionally, using EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate). As a result, the pages can never quite be fully opened, with opposite pages reflecting the content of each other, hopefully pulling their reader even deeper into Takamoto’s work.
— statement by the publisher