MT. TAKAO, JAPAN: FOREST PORTALS

 MT. TAKAO, JAPAN: FOREST PORTALS

The compositions in this series are created from film I shot in the forests on Mt. Takao, a designated national park in Japan about an hour outside of Tokyo. It’s a lovely bit of wild nature (and curated historic/religious shrines) that provides a great day-trip escape for the denizens of the urban megalopolis that is greater Tokyo. The photos I shot here were minimal and sparse, with far more pink sky in the photo frame than forest or land. Perhaps I was subconsciously influenced to keep the photos minimal by the zen stone monuments scattered throughout the woods in our ascent to the top, or perhaps I was just obsessed with recording the pink/grey/purple sky that day. Whichever the case, I remember having a definite vision in my head of what these photo could potentially be, and how I would configure them into compositions.

I took a set of four photos, each slightly different, at different spots in the park to create these compositions in the Forest Portal style. The overlapping pieces of the four photos in each composition emphasizes the color shifts of the sky from photo to photo, and creates a very organic “earthy” color palette.

Notice the esoteric quality of the pink/grey skies - neither tempestuous or benign - and the clarity of the subtle gradations of the hillsides in the distance. These pieces come very close to capturing the emotional state that can be induced from meditative moments we experience when standing in the midst of the natural world, disconnected from devices and anxiety.