Hidden in Plain Sight. A Japanese Journey

Although I have a lot of pictures from my various trips to Japan, organising them into a book is a challenge. The photos themselves are good enough to deserve publication. However, most of them are affected by a ‘déjà-vu’ effect. People on the subway, crowded crossroads, striking contrasts between modernity and the past, or between rural areas and highly urbanised ones, pop culture vs. business culture… no matter how hard I try, every single photo gives the feeling that someone has already done it.

I am neither an anthropologist nor an expert on Japanese society, so I have no reasonable explanation for this feeling. Perhaps it is simply a matter of observer’s bias: since, to quote Bergson, the eye sees what the mind is prepared to understand, the problem is what I am able to see, not the ‘resistance’ of Japan to any attempt to be captured (pun unintended) in a frame. Nevertheless, I will continue to collect ‘raw material’ and see if I can make sense of it.