Statement by Hiroshi Suganuma

It was 2010 that I started this work . I made it by taking pictures of forest surrounding Mt. Fuji .
This mountain and surrounding forest are not only a symbolical place of Japan , but also the place where Japanese
Self-Defense Force trains. Furthermore, the deep forest known as natural monument is famous for the amount of
suicide; we often hear saying “you can't escape from it.” It is the place reminding us of the death, where, without map
nor compass, you cannot identify even the way you came from. However, when I went there, I found young leaves orienting
themselves to the light coming from deep woods, and then intuited the essence of light as a source of life; it recalled me
a sort of “vector” of blue in the sky. I turned my camera upward, and released the shutter by focusing on the sky barely
seen from the leaves and branches ―― to collect this vivid color of sky.


Kazuo Yoshida is a photographer based in Tokyo.
To view more of Kazuo Yoshida's work, please visit his website.