shashasha

"The Living Earth" is Japanese photographer Makoto Takagi's first book in fourteen years.
Takagi, an experienced mountaineer, shot the series in Kamikochi, a mountain valley in Japan's Nagano Prefecture. Based on a traditional Japanese view of nature, Takagi saw life in everything he photographed: rivers and rocks, forests and mountains. Taken individually, each photograph captures a moment of sublime natural beauty; viewed in sequence, Takagi's images reveal a brilliantly orchestrated cycle of life unfolding on a larger scale.

“Takagi’s works convey his efforts to become one wth the mountains and to share his own sensitivity with the rhythms of nature through his repeated visits to this area, including during the harsher seasons. They also embody his attempts to search for and dig out his own ideals that lie hidden in the Kamikocho area, an activity which is reminiscent of the attitude of a solitary ascetic practitioner. Takagi’s awareness of the invisible and mysterious forces of nature is rooted in the ancient Japanese experience of mountains as sacred places of purity and nature as an object of great reverence.”
― from the essay “Kamikochi, the Place Where the Gods Descend to Earth” by Kazuko Sekiji (chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo)