She, Tokyo
There you are, walking the streets of Tokyo. Elegant, lonely perhaps, cutting through the oppressive crowds, determined to be yourself even as society pressures you to conform. I have crossed your path countless times, always different, unreachable. What are you thinking and dreaming of?
***
This series is the fruit of an extended stay in Japan at the beginning of 2017, a time of discovery on several fronts: of a country and a culture, of myself. I ventured alone, absorbing impressions through the lens of my camera, allowing the viewfinder to guide me one corner after the other, ready to welcome encounters and experiences.
Photography is to me a way to be open to the world, present in the moment, testifying to its impermanence, giving it value through the act of attention. Nowhere this can be felt more strongly than in the urban environment: profoundly, essentially human, whether through our direct presence or through the traces and objects we leave behind — fleeting as we and they are.
Perhaps, photography is a zen path to find ourselves in the mirror of the Other, through the process of recording it, giving it geometrical order in our viewfinder.
We can never photograph the same river twice, nor can we be the same photographer twice. But we can say, I was here, and I saw this, and I cared.
Japan.
