In ‘Dondoro’, Paris-based photographer Estelle Hanania collaborates with the famed Japanese puppet master, Hoichi Okamoto. Here is a magical world, brimming with hidden narratives, in which human figures seem to be either ephemeral visitors or supernatural beings. The enigmatic, full-colour images display Okamoto’s precise craftsmanship and articulation; the pale-faced, life-sized puppets borrow aesthetically from ‘butoh’, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. The figures resonate with silence and beauty, each captured in a moment of suspended animation, a perplexing game of storytelling taking place between master, puppet and photographer.

48 p, ills colour, 16 x 23 cm, pb, French