Island in the Clouds

Hiroike is inspired by Japanese painting, which has been done in Japan since ancient times. He expresses Japanese landscapes, with their uniquely complex topography and climate and four distinct seasons, in the medium of photography with a unique aesthetic sense of "wabi" and "sabi" that is uniquely Japanese. Among his works, his black-and-white photographs inspired by "Suiboku-ga" (ink painting) are the ultimate in minimalism. He chooses landscapes with minimalistic beauty, expresses the form of the subject and the relationship between light and shadow by removing color.

This photo shows a sea of clouds in a Japanese cedar forest. The soft sea of clouds is white and moving, while the sharp tips of the cedars are black and immobile. The contrast of "soft: sharp", "light: dark" and "motion: immobility" creates a landscape that can truly be called a "Suiboku-ga" (ink painting). To further smooth out the sea of clouds, I used an ND filter and a very long exposure time of 300 seconds for this photo.