#Japan

"My working method consists of two parts. The first is collecting, a fully intuitively process, in which the emotional experience is key and technique is of minor or very little importance. When photographing, for example, I don’t pay that many attention to sharpness. However, in the second stage, after the material has been collected, I’ll put all the dedication into the work, the editing, the printing. This process can take a long time, just like aging wine. It is impossible to predict what will come out, but I treat this second part with the most care and attention. Knowing, that the real beauty lies in the imperfection, the little mistakes, edges or elements that you didn't foresee."

 

~ Paul Cupido

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“Everything inside the frame is equally important”

 

~ Pentti Sammallahti

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"Torii gates in Japan symbolize the Shinto belief that deities reside not just in shrines, temples churches, mosques, synagogues and other institutionalized religious structures, but in nature, in the earth, sky and water. These gates serve as reminders to respect and honor the land, the earth and our universe. Personally, I regard them almost as road signs directing me to slow down and smell the roses. Every individual will have their own interpretations, but when I see a Torii gate, I immediately want to free myself from unwanted distractions, focus on what is important, escape from the noise of the world, unclutter my “stuff" and prioritize life. These are heady and ambitious resolutions, usually quite forgotten when back in the “other” world. This particular Torii gate stands outside a small shrine on a sparsely populated island in Shikoku. I have photographed it three times so far, always cognizant that the experience of concentrated waiting and watching could be considered a form of meditation, appropriate to the location."

 

~Michael Kenna

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“While human life is fleeting, our individual lives are a rich tapestry of experience an memories”

 

~ Paul Cupido

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"If still images had embedded sound tracks, while observing this image we might hear hooper swans, plaintively calling out for their breakfast, embracing the chilly early morning stillness of Kussharo Lake, and preparing for the day ahead. The dawn mist has just cleared, distant mountains have become visible, snow still clings to the tree branches, and I am doing what I love to do, walking, observing, exploring, photographing, and welcoming another delicious Hokkaido experience."

 

~ Michael Kenna

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"As a photographer, one might, if very fortunate, be commissioned to photograph in a location that would otherwise be difficult to access. Such was the case in 2006 when Traveler Magazine kindly asked me to spend a week on Mt. Koya, (aka Koya San), the Honshu mountain top headquarters of the Shingon Buddhist sect. I stayed in a different residential temple every night, sleeping on tatami floors and dining on vegetables, roots and nuts. I photographed monks and pilgrims, inside and outside of temples, sand gardens, stone lanterns, tombstones in the ancient Okunoin graveyard, and the surrounding landscape. I experienced exquisite Buddhist rituals and services. The whole experience was thrilling and life changing.

This photograph of a Lotus Pond next to the Henjouson Temple was made one very early, pre-dawn morning. The light was soft and quiet, as if the day was just waking up from a deep sleep. The exposure was perhaps twenty minutes, so the water becomes a sort of mist, swirling around the one central point where water sprays into the air. I remember birds singing and monks chanting. Occasional figures walked by, across the bridge, but the long exposure ensured they dissolved and become invisible."

 

~ Michael Kenna

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"Perhaps the secret to being a productive photographer is just about showing up - being in the right place at the right time to record and/or interpret the miraculous beauty of our world. I have frequently visited and photographed around Kussharo Lake, more than most places in Japan. Set high up in the North East of Hokkaido, there is something alluring, attractive and mysterious about the place that consistently calls me back. No matter how many times I walk along its banks, the view is never the same, it changes and recharges every minute to reveal a continual stream of astonishingly beautiful new treasures and delights. On this particularly cold morning, the frozen ice combined with the natural hot spring water to produce clouds of white mist which rose behind black, inky trees. I was there at one of many “right" times and I knew that it would been very difficult to make a poor photograph. Having frequently returned to this location since, I have found, to my great satisfaction, there have been many other “right” times.."

 

~ Michael Kenna

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“Japan has a long and rich tradition of reciprocal gift giving. I have been the grateful recipient of so much over so many years in Japan, and I know that I will never be able to give back in equal measure. I hope this work can be seen as a small token of my desire to do so. I also hope this work can be viewed as a homage to Japan and that it will serve to symbolize my immense ongoing appreciation and deep gratitude for this beautiful and mysterious country”

 

~ Michael Kenna

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"I believe that childhood can contain certain numinous moments, something that can give a sort of almost cosmic inspiration. I experienced this with the sea close to our family home, which has an enormous tidal effect, with the water ebbing and flowing twice a day. At low tide, you can walk out across the mudflats and witness a myriad of life, including multitudes of birds. Then at high tide, that same area is completely submerged by two meters of water. During our long childhood summers, we would lose all sense of time, sometimes spending so long at the shore that the sea had time to rise, fall, and rise again. At night, the lighthouse would flash through my childhood bedroom window every four seconds, and my grandparents used to tell me it was watching over us. These experiences meant that from a very young age, I was acutely aware of the perpetual rhythms of the island, like the cosmic phenomenon of the moon controlling the tides, the passing of the seasons. That enduring sense of rhythm has certainly influenced my work as an artist."

 

~ Paul Cupido

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"Working initially in Japan and then further afield in Asia reaffirmed for me what many artists, such as Albers, Brandt and Rothko, had already taught me: it is not necessary, or even desirable, to fill a rectangle with details. This “empty” white field of snow, shaded from grey to white, invites me, and I hope other viewers, to wander into its open expanse, leaving our tracks behind, before gazing into the distance where a magical mountain appears, floating on the horizon, almost as a mirage. On the right, black trees mark the edge of a forest, suggesting a whole other point of departure. Photography records and describes, but also interprets and invites. As the world continues to spin faster and faster, providing endless distractions, I increasingly prefer to spend time away from crowds, buildings, noise and screens, out in nature. If that is not possible, I can at least look at artworks made in these places and perhaps almost get lost in my own imagination.”

 

~ Michael Kenna

“In Japan, cherry blossoms, also known as Sakura, are venerated throughout the country as reminders and symbols of the transience and blissful glory of life. Festivals are planned and national meteorological advisories are broadcast to predict and document the sweeping pink wave which starts on the southern island of Okinawa in late February and moves up to northern Hokkaido by early May. In 2002, I was fortunate to be in Nara, Honshu at the perfect time. After a long day of exploring, and with the light fading, I came across these lush trees along the banks of a small canal as I walked back to my hotel. I had no tripod, and to keep the camera steady I jammed it up against a roadside fence. I could hardly see anything in the viewfinder, yet it resulted in this lovely, sweeping, out of focus, foreground shape. I quite forgot about this photograph until the negatives were processed and contact sheets made. The subsequent discovery was a delightfully unexpected and wonderful surprise.”

 

~ Michael Kenna

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"For me photographs are taken in the eye before you've even thought what they mean. That's the reality I'm interested in capturing"

~ Daido Moriyama