Yarusenai, Romain Mader

やるせない (Yarusenai) takes its title from a Japanese word used for a feeling that is barely translatable: a quiet sadness with nowhere to go.

The book grew out of the exhibition Only the Lonely at and follows Mader’s journey to Japan after realizing he could no longer cry. There, he attends workshops led by “tear sommeliers,” where crying is taught, practiced and eventually certified. The premise is disarmingly absurd, but the photographs resist turning it into a joke.

Instead, they trace unexpected parallels between Switzerland and Japan, where emotional restraint begins to feel less like a cultural difference than a shared condition. The book never resolves the contradiction. It stays with it.