Narahara Ikko made this series in the United States between 1970 and 1974 when he was rethinking his approach to photography. Many photographs were taken in 1972 as he drove from the East Coast to the West, writing in his notes: 'While we were driving across the flat Arizona desert, we felt as though we had been thrown out from the earth and thrust into another planet…. The landscape surrounding us there in the desert was ancient, but to be so informed of the age of something in geological terms is somewhat meaningless. For when one personally experiences the image, it is something altogether different and new as though it were just born. And so it was for us.' The final image, the only colour photograph in the book, shows the 1972 Apollo 17 launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

First edition, signed in blue ink opposite the title-page; large 4to (337 x 355 mm, 13¼ x 14 in); black-and-white and colour photographs, text in Japanese and English, design by Mitsuo Katsui, light production or handling creases; grey endpapers, pictorial cloth-covered boards with black cloth spine titled in blue and silver, lightly marked, tips and spine lightly rubbed, publisher's black cloth-covered board slipcase, titles to upper in black and blue, printed black, green, and white title label on spine, sides lightly rubbed, publisher's cardboard shipping case with red and white printed title label on upper side, lightly marked, minor wear, a very good copy; [228]pp.