気配

I first learned to love the square format when I picked up my Hasselblad 500 C/M. For years it had been an unattainable dream: during the time I was shooting film, before digital took over completely, a camera like that was far beyond my reach. Then came the great escape away from film, and suddenly prices dropped to a point where I could finally buy one. With it, I started to see images in a different way, and the square frame became one of my favourite ways to look at the world. But let’s set the frame aside for a moment, and think instead about the experience itself—the kind of moment every landscape photographer, I believe, has known.

Here is a piece that wil be at my upcoming exhibition, from October 7th till the 12th at the Kujaku gallery

I find myself in a place, at a certain hour, and the world opens up in front of me. The gestures disappear: there is no button to press, no dial to turn, no filter to pull out. These things become second nature. It feels as if consciousness gives way to another way of seeing: I begin to recognize the sections, the lines of composition, the areas of light and shadow. In those instances, time no longer flows in the usual way. I only perceive what moves inside the frame. In this case, it was the mountains before me, and a single cloud painted with color, slowly drifting to the very center of the square, exactly where I would have wished it to be—ready to play the role of the main character.

That is how a photograph starts, for me. Later comes another time, the moment of reflection, when I consider what that image means within a wider context. But that is another story.