Asahi Camera
Around 1965, Ōtsuji began to frequently contribute essays and articles to photography magazines such as "Camera Mainichi, Camera Jidai, S D: Space Design," and "Shashin Hihyō," among others. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he also continued to experiment with his individual works and publish them, often alongside his texts. In the 1970s, his published works became increasingly theoretical. A series of photographs for "Asahi Camera," "Ōtsuji Kiyoji Experimental Workshop of Photography" (1975), featured both essays and photographs that considered the theoretical issues surrounding photography as a process and discipline. His series "Hitohako no kako" ("Past of One Tin Can""") was created for his first solo exhibition in 1977, and featured a 23-photograph sequence showing a can of memories being unpacked and individual elements examined by the camera – including old photographs. The series can be seen as a prolonged meditation on the object, which had interested him since his early career.