INTO THE SILENCE
Yasuhiro Ogawa is a well known photographer in the photo book community. His books are sold out before you know it. After The Dreaming and Tokyo Silence he published “Into the Silence”. I have bought the second edition with a beautiful hardcover. The first edition was a softcover but included all the same photographs so far I know. And those photographs are beautiful, all made during his journey though the Tōhoku region the most northern part of the Honshu island. Ogawa followed the footsteps and got inspired by the 17th century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō and in particular his work “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”
ill on the journey,
my dream takes off
runs around withered fields
Ogawa takes the viewer with him during his solitude train journey across the Tōhoku region. Beautiful and tranquil landscapes combined with the harsh realities in a remote region. Empty street scenes with a lost soul or a solitude traveller in an empty train carriage. The Tōhoku region is a part of Japan that a not a lot of outsiders visit and this book is a beautiful glimpse of a Japan we hardly see. I can highly recommend this photo book which is a poem of images by itself
Making this visual story was inspired by the 17th century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, and in particular his work “The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no Hosomichi)”.
Ill on the journey, my dream takes off runs around withered fields.
Bashō was a wandering poet. He loved to travel, and wrote many of his haiku during his journeys. I’m also a person who has been obsessed with wanderlust, and have admired his haiku since my youth. His work “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” has been a great influence on me, so I decided to make my photo story in homage to Bashō’s famous travelogue.
Bashō set off on his Deep North journey in the middle of his 40’s, and I began to shoot this series at the age of 46. With these photographs I want to portray a middle-aged man’s passion for life, traveling and solitude, like Bashō’s artwork.
