Recognizing what I had been seeing

Japan’s Somei Yoshino cherry blossoms have a short season. Even if you catch both the full bloom and the blossoms falling, it lasts only about a week. Seven days out of the year. When I look back at the photographs from that time, every one has cherry blossoms in it. A library full of cherry blossoms.

To photograph cherry blossoms means that during that time, I am not photographing anything else. This happens even on ordinary days. When I decide from the start to “photograph this,” I sometimes stop noticing everything else.

Some photographic series begin with a theme chosen before shooting. You go to specific places or follow particular subjects, gathering the photographs you need. Photographing cherry blossoms in their season is close to this. There are also series that emerge afterward, when you look back at photographs accumulated over many years.

For me, it’s usually the latter.

When I’m walking through the city or traveling, I photograph the moments that draw me in. When I take the photographs, I am not thinking about which series they belong to. But when I look back at my library, I find that the same things have been appearing in my photographs again and again. A series begins to emerge from those photographs. Once I recognize it, the next time I’m out in the city, I start noticing things I had walked past before.

My library holds several clusters of photographs. These are the beginnings of series, found among photographs I’ve taken over many years. Today, I’ll share twenty of them.