shashasha

For nine years, Yu Yamauchi traveled to the island of Yakushima in the south of Japan, each time spending a month in its thick, dark primeval forest. Alone within nature, Yamauchi explored not only the boundaries of his own body and mind but the relationships between nature, reality and himself. Away from cultural and social influences, he came as close as possible to a pure human experience.
His photobook “Jinen” is a record of this conversation with nature, conveyed in photographs that range from shots of sublime beauty to examinations of patterns and seemingly otherworldly structures shot in the dark of the night.

“Whenever I was in the forest, I kept on walking and taking photographs.
Looking at the pictures later, they perfectly visualized the relationship between my inner self and the overwhelming forest around me and showed the gradual changes that had taken place in these nine years.
Yes, the photographs are proof of this reality; my existence in the forest, my having taking photographs.

Existing, here, in this place, in this moment.
Everything in this world, all that is and all that takes place, is a perfect part of natural existence.”
― from Yu Yamauchi’s statement

The book also includes an afterword by Yu Yamauchi in Japanese and in English translation.