fotoii

In 1993 I started the series The Elements (Water, Air or “Wind”, Earth or “Rock”, etc.) with the aim of showing aspects of nature from a contemplative and loving viewpoint. When digital photography appeared, I wondered whether at some time, in a more or less distant future, human beings would become submerged in a virtual world from which there would be no turning back, unable to distinguish between that which is seen-felt-perceived via experience, and that which is imagined or virtualised as if it were reality. It was then that I felt the need to photograph the Elements of nature in a way that was as pure, and as free from mental intervention, as possible. Contemplating how the water of the river related to the rock it immerses, how they touch; how the air-wind speaks to the branches of a tree … to remain in almost absolute silence, to open the shutter of the camera, for 1/8, ½ or for 4 seconds, and feel within this silent time my gaze centred on the “subject” chosen, so that the image would imprint itself not only on the photographic paper, but also on my own perception. Many of the photographs taken up to 2001 were published in two small books “Voices of Water” and “Memories of Winds” by Shiseido Word in Japan, with poems by my friend Elia Taniguchi and design by the master Mitsuo Katsui.