shashasha

The series Walking with Leica began from my taking photos on walks around the neighborhood where I live. But around the time the photos in this book were taken, I began to consider whether I could also take photos inside my house without having to go outside. At the beginning, I took photos of my “clothes” that I had just taken off, out of a feeling that a part of me still remained in them. I then took photos of the area around my “pillow” just after I got out of my futon (bedding) in the morning; of a “coat hanger” that just casually dangled on the curtain rail over my window; and of an “apple,” from the time it was washed to when it was eaten. A stream of ideas came into my mind as I became increasingly amused by such photos. Inspired by my own wild ideas, this series ended up evolving to where I captured “three citrus fruits” and then “three paper scraps” without my being fully aware. Though these photos were somewhat ‘fictitious,’ they also seemed to be quite natural.

Nippon Camera Magazine’s chief editor, who has been in charge of publishing this series on a monthly basis, saw these photos and muttered, “You wound up retreating into your own comfort zone.” Exactly, I thought to myself; a reclusive life is in fact quite amazing.