shashasha

Artist Sayaka Takazaki takes photos in the months between early Summer and late Fall, while working in a mountain lodge on Mt. Ontake.
Her various works, inspired by wandering nature on her own, with no trace of human life but her own, have in recent years started to enjoy critical recognition. To the Ocean of Silence is her debut photo book.
The images collected in this book were taken during Takazaki’s lonely journey across Japan, from the Japan Sea to the Pacific Ocean, in 2014.
Starting in Oyashirazu in Niigata prefecture, at an altitude of zero meters, she made her way through the Japanese Northern Alps, to Norikura-dake and Mt. Ontake, crossing the Middle and the Southern Alps, to arrive in Suruga Bay in Shizuoka Prefecture after wandering for 43 days.
While the views she has captured during her solitary journey are depictions of Japan’s nature, her photos somehow show a completely unknown world.
Surpassing labels such as “nature photography”, “landscape photography” and similar, Takazaki has created a new kind of image.

― from the publisher’s statement (translation by shashasha)

I walked across the Japanese Alps, from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean.
My satisfaction upon arrival was due to a state of serenity, an internal quiet. It was as deep as the ocean, spreading gently beyond my internal boundaries.
My senses had been sharpened by the extended time in the mountains, and as I walked I felt grateful even to the smell of the woods.
Faced with the overwhelming beauty of nature in front of me, I had nothing to say but thank you — To give thanks is a prayer, as well as a point of entry into the ocean of silence.
The world can change completely based on a single point of perception.

— from the artist’s afterwords