Motodaki

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, and further emphasizes minimalism with long exposures.

This photo is of "Motodaki" in Akita Prefecture, Japan. Normally, a waterfall is a river falling down a cliff, but in this case, the water gushes directly from the mountain slope. It is "the place where rivers are born," and the clear water and the mist generated here are "the source of life for plants and animals". I used an ND filter to increase the exposure time in order to soften the movement of the water.