Activities and Mission
I’m an experimental photographer.
The concept of my photography is to document the wonders of everyday life by photographing familiar objects and places with unconventional techniques.
I shoot in a variety of ways, which can be divided into three main series and projects:
Tiny Little Universe
Another World
Handmade Photo Atelier
Tiny Little Universe
For my “Tiny Little Universe” series, I don’t have to go far to discover the universe around me.
One part of this project is “Quail’s Planet”.
I took a close-up of a quail egg I bought at the supermarket and inverted the negative, and a blue planet appeared. (I haven’t reported this to the National Astronomical Observatory yet, but this is one of my most important discoveries.)
In addition to that, I’ve been photographing a small world of mushrooms and moss in a wooded area.
Another World
Modern cameras have high resolution and can capture fine detail.
However, sometimes it is better to capture an image without too much detail. When a photograph is a little blurry, it forces us to stretch our imagination in an attempt to make sense of what we see. That is why I create special devices to create distorted images.
For example, to produce the “Another World” series, I use a shaking amplification device to take blurry photos, I take bokeh photos with an enlarged pinhole camera, and I use a hand-made glass dish to distort the world.
What I want to capture is not reality itself, but a sense of reality.
I want to distill what is sensible, emotional, and essential from what is real.
Handmade Photo Atelier
At my Handmade Photo Atelier, I make a variety of tools, including lenses, kaleidoscopes, and an original lens attachment called the Soratama, and I take photographs with them to test them out.
My aim is to create analog expressions that are not possible in Photoshop. By creating new devices by hand, I am trying to get closer to the origins of photography, which has become a black box.
However, digital technology is very useful for this kind of experiment.
Therefore, the concept of the Handmade Photo Atelier project is not to deny the digital method, but to make good use of its convenience, to recreate the fun of analog photography in a new way.
You don’t have to go far to find a subject close to you.
Even familiar things can take on a different appearance if you change your perspective a bit.
Analog devices brings can bring subtle nuances to the photograph.
My mission is not just to shoot, but to convey to my audience how to enjoy photography in different ways.
Zenji Uehara