Perhaps because there was a time in my life where I hid all the scissors and blades away from my room or I suffer bouts of extreme anxiety and depression. Or probably because the book pinpoints my greatest issue with photography that deals with issues: Pictures rarely make a difference regarding something. Yes there are notable exceptions like W. Eugene Smith's Minamata than lead to the factory be answerable to what they did to the town of Minamata. There's also Nick Ut's Napalm Girl and Hugh Van Es' Saigon chopper which pretty much ended the Vietnam war. But at the end of the day, there are still corporations being dicks and wars being fought.

I guess that's why I approach my work in a personal and diaristic level nowadays. I have understood that I am the only one that can make an impact on my own life. I have the ability of changing my life and seeing how things could be different. That is why my documentary work in the past feels empty. It's a mixture of I don't care about it much or I don't think what I photographed matters as opposed to when I turned the camera to myself. It made an impact on my life.

Ibasyo manages to make an impact about the issue by not just having visually arresting photographs but by directly helping the subjects in the photograph. How? Ibasyo is only 6 books, one for each of photographer Kosuke Okahara's subjects. The 6 books are moving around the world. At the end of the book, there is a lot of blank pages for the reader to put message and words of encouragement because the subjects are going to receive the book. 

What I admire is that it directly deals with the problems of the women in the books head on. It may not solve the problem of self harm but at least we have a chance of saving the life of 6 women and from them, it might spread.

It sticks. I've talked to people who have seen the books and it has the same effect. I personally have not written anything at the back yet because I wanted to take the time to reflect and write something that will be respectful and at the same time cheerful but I was never good at writing things such as that. Hopefully I get to encounter the book in the future or borrow it and be able to write something for them.

I admire what Ibasyo has been doing and I do hope many people would see the book. I guess moving forward in the future, I should have that same mindset of caring about the people in my photograph or at least digging deep down inside me to tell a story I care about so much that I will do what it takes to be creative as possible and show their story.