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17 May 2007

At Work, Part II

I took this in Nara, the second prefecture I visited in Japan.

Traveling to this totally new culture made me decide to take snapshots while I was doing it. I thought it would be a shame not to photograph other things than just what I came to do. I chose to use a small and simple camera (an Olympus Pen) and started to take black and white pictures with it.

As I’ve said earlier here, I am highly influenced by the works of Daido Moriyama. He also shows the need of making an image rather than telling a story. Afterward, the entire story comes out anyway, but that depends on the edit and use of the image. It is a great way of telling/showing the inner feelings of the person.

I liked making my first diaries so much that I decided to do this more often and more consistently. I have also made diaries of holidays, small trips, and even of my trips for commercial purposes. It gives me the chance to bundle the snapshots that normally end up in an envelope or a box and never come out again.

I discovered that it gave me great joy working this way and I became looser after a while. It is not just about "the score"; in fact the real score is to be aware of what you do while you do it and to make the best of times when you're there. By making the diaries I was much more aware of where I was at that moment and that gave me a much clearer look on the trip afterwards. The memories are much deeper and the awareness is greater. I also feel very happy to be able to tell a story this way and to add very personal and sometimes abstract images. This is true and pure photography to me.

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