My work is born out of every day life in the world we live in. It is the real world that you and I are part of; the mind-numbing, depressing, bleak, cruel, beautiful real world, which inspires me the most and gives me a clear and strong identity as a photographer.
This project “Gone” started as my escapism. Sometimes I want to stop everything and disappear without telling anyone. I just want to escape from my own life. I wonder what the world would be like without me. What would the world be like without you? Through this series, I wanted to explore how much the absence of an individual can impact on his/her loved ones and environment, but how little on the fast-paced world and consumerism.
After the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the northern part of Japan, I developed this idea to the next level in order to express the tremendous catastrophe where over 15,000 lives were swallowed in an instant. This piece “14:46 JST, March 11, 2011” is about our loss of loved ones, believing in hope and the future ahead of us, and our monumental challenges to rebuild our society.
