FRAGILE BEAUTY OF FEEBLE LIGHT
Summer rain; drops falling from the eaves, seeping into earth, feeding up gnarled roots covered by moss, washing over garden stones.
Beauty which hides between light and darkness.
Solitude mixed with sadness.
Mystery of shadow.
This collection of photographs has been inspired by wabi sabi – one of key concepts in the Japanese culture, yet also one of the most elusive and difficult to define. Rooted in the Oriental sensibility and in the philosophy of Buddhism, it seeks beauty in the natural world; it values imperfection and impermanence; it celebrates poverty and simplicity.
This body work is also a personal record of four years spent in Japan, where I learned to appreciate darkness; or – in the words of Junichiro Tanizaki – to „seek fragile beauty of feeble light.”
It was actually Tanizaki’s seminal essay „In Praise of Shadows” which provided important inspiration for this work; and for numerous journeys to Kyoto, Nara and Kamakura, where most of my photographs were taken.
„An empty space is marked off with plain wood and plain walls, so that the light drawn into it forms dim shadows within emptiness. There is nothing more. And yet, when we gaze into the darkness […] though we know perfectly well it is mere shadow, we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner of the atmosphere there reigns complete and utter silence; that here, in the darkness, immutable tranquility holds sway.” (Tanizaki, "In Praise of Shadows")