Crystals of light dancing in Taisho-era romance
■Location
Ginzan Onsen, Yamagata Prefecture
■Background and thoughts behind the work
Ginzan Onsen sits quietly in the deep mountains of Yamagata. On a night when snow piled softly on the streets steeped in Taisho-era romance, I attempted something for the first time.
I used the built-in flash to capture the “expressions of snow invisible to the eye.” Until then I had cherished natural light, but that evening I felt a strong urge to make each drifting snowflake shine like a jewel.
The instant the flash fired, pure white snow crystals appeared against the dark, and the warm orange glow of the gas lamps contrasting with the cold snow created a dreamlike scene. In the subzero cold I kept shooting until my fingertips went numb, and when I saw the glittering snow on the preview screen, I felt an indescribable emotion.
Through my first strobe shoot, I rediscovered the beauty of movement dwelling within frozen time. This photograph is an unforgettable and precious image for me.
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