In 2018, SUPER LABO decided to publish Yesterday's Sandwich, 1965–1980, Part II. This book can be considered a continuation of, or addition to, the book of the same name published by Phaidon in 2007 and reprinted in 2009.
 
I was fortunate enough to “discover the method” that produced the images forming the basis of these two books. This happened in the mid-1960s, when colour slide film appeared as a new photographic technology.
 
By chance, I placed one developed film over another and saw the simple images in their individual frames combine. These overlapping frames produced complex, unusual pictures. Moving the films and changing the combinations gave me many images from which to choose. From slides layered in this way, I made the series Yesterday's Sandwich.
 
Similar images had already existed in photography, but they were obtained through a different process: double-exposure printing. Working with slides allowed me to do everything more easily and quickly.
 
I believe this series conveyed a unique, metaphorical, encompassing image of our lives, reflecting a sensory perception of life that might be called “Soviet romanticism”.
 
I think it corresponded to the worldview of Soviet people in the 1960s and 1970s, as they began to recognise the duality of Soviet life and understand their own lives within that atmosphere. This coincided with the beginning of social change and democratisation.
 
The opening of the Khrushchev era brought a new worldview and another possibility for photography: photographing the “plain truth”. With greater freedom, it became possible to expose social problems and photograph the naked human body.
 
This is also a very important series for me because, after making it, I felt like a photographer.