KUNI Scan Complete Collection

Admin 14.12.2025

Number of photos: 20885 photos (238 sets)
Resolution: 388×556 — 1312×905

The legendary Kuni scan collection. Behind this name, so endearing to Russian ears, lurked an anonymous figure, one of a vast galaxy of scanners who, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, took on the difficult task of digitizing and preserving photobooks from the 1980s and 1990s. Despite the fact that Japanese photobooks of that era represent a vast cultural heritage, strikingly different from the Met Art-style crapography we know today, not only are there no specialized studies about them, but there’s almost no information online. Moreover, even the scans of the photobooks themselves gradually disappeared from public access, despite being produced in huge quantities and still gathering dust on Usenet servers.
The Kuni collection is an ideal introduction to the aesthetics of Japanese photobooks for several reasons. Firstly, these are almost complete photo sets from photo books, which stands out from other scanners, which might scan a single image from a photo book. Secondly, all the models are signed. Where Kuni provides each model from a single photo book, it takes the trouble to include both the model’s name and the photographer’s, which is a valuable asset. Thirdly, and most importantly, it offers an absolutely stunning coverage of photographers, models, and genres, which is rare among other scanners.