Shizenko

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 picture shows morning fog and standing dead trees at a lake called "Shizenko (natural lake)". Shizenko is a lake created by nature, formed when a river was dammed by an earthquake.At that time, the forest sank into the lake and the trees that had grown there died. This landscape symbolizes the Japanese aesthetic sense of "mononoaware" or "sabi.