Just This

In 2017 I went to Kyoto, Japan - the only industrialized city that was not bombed during WWII. Because of that, its ancient Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and gardens still exist, some over a thousand years old. I was looking for poetic images that evoked one thought or experience, much like a haiku poem speaks from one’s silent perception happening spontaneously without thought or prior conceptualizing. I also wanted to make images that spoke to the essence of traditional Japan - that echoed that ancient culture’s reverence for nature, beauty, stillness and deep connection with the land, found both in nature itself and in works of art.

I think of these images as haiku in visual form, speaking to the heart of “just this”, a visual poem of one simple experience that can never be described or repeated, but nevertheless makes us stop before it in the deep recognition of something profound in its beauty and singularity, it’s “such-ness”.