ARTIST STATEMENT

Diorama Map

I am deeply committed and passionate about photography. I believe that photography is a way of looking at the self. Rather than thinking about what I can do with photography, I take pictures in a quest to see what I can become through photography. Diorama Map is a series of photos taken from different locations to provide a bird’s eye view of the cities where they were taken (for example, Osaka combines about 40 to 50 locations). All my own traces (cut photos) are fitted together to form a collage. I think this is a kind of map diorama. The result is a distillation of my own photographic style.

This work required a great deal of my passion and energy and entailed a great deal of financial, physical, and spiritual hardship. After completing it I realized that it grew out of my experiences during a Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage that I went on alone as my high school graduation trip. The pilgrimage for me meant simply walking the route - I had no particular underlying motivation or goal for doing it. I think the spiritual core of my work came from this experience, and I continuously take pictures to emphasize the spirit of going ever forward.

Entries form: Lambda print (1,030mm x 1,080mm) 5 dioramas