I Spent Three Weeks Photographing Japan's Spirituality And Modernism

I wanted to take photos since I´ve started taking photos as a travel photographer ten years ago and in 2016 I was ready to visit that unknown country. I didn´t know what to expect but I was very excited and knew that great photo-spots are waiting. Before I travelled to Japan I tried to find the spots I wanted to shoot and started browsing the internet to find interesting places. When I was ready I selected almost 200 spots on my map and I knew I won´t make them all. 

I was fascinated of the contrast between perfectionism and their connection to their environment and nature from the beginning. Japanese most common religions, shintoism and buddhism are alive in every corner of the country. Even far away in the middle of the ocean, on the hightest mountains and in the darkest forests I found some shrines and torii, the traditional Japanese gates most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine. A torii symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. As a photographer I like to create clear, minimalistic photos in black and white but in Japan I started using my color skills to intensify the strong contrasts of japanese culture. Most of the time I am working with different neutral density filters to enhance the effect of minimalism in my works. The longer I am able to exposure my photos, the clearer the photos because I am loosing every structure of the water and the sky. After three weeks of exploring Japan for my first time I knew that I definitely will come back as soon as possible. A lot of fascinating places are still waiting for me though I drove more than 6.000 kilometers in that short time. Japan, we will meet again!

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