I was so excited when I saw that this week's theme was on the topic of "Language." After all, I've spent an entire career focused on language and literature. But ever since my friend, fellow 365er @taffy posted her mundane challenge photo, I've wanted to just tag her photo as mine, too. It was so brilliantly conceived and photographed! I've mulled about an idea for photographing "language" all week. I'm surrounded by books, yet photographing books didn't inspire me.
Sunday night, 11pm. Nearly pumpkin hour again. Wandering through the house, camera in hand.
桃太郎！
There it was, on the coffee table. The beautiful hand made "kirie" (traditional Japanese cut paper) book, created by the incomparable Mitsumasa Anno.
I placed the book on its slip case and photographed it at various aperture settings, and ultimately settled on this one because it kept the foreground text clear as well as the image inside the house where Peach Boy is jumping out of the peach and surprising his new parents. I played with various angles in trying to show how the pages were flat pieces of thick paper folded and gathered with beautiful string holding each paper into the binding. I tried to depict the language as both the necessary part of daily life -- how story is told -- as well as an art form.
And, in an effort to "double dip" across two themes, could the concept of not only creating but also the careful handling while reading hand-made books be a way of slowing down? Especially in an era of digital books on tablets?
Junko, this is exquisite and your shot shows all you want perfectly. The beautiful book is fascinating and must be a real pleasure to own. Thank you for sharing it with us. Fav!
Oh Junko, you have done it again. You have taken a startlingly simple and beautiful photograph of an absolutely gorgeous artefact. You have also given me an inkling of an idea that I have wanted to photograph for a long time! Thank you.
I'm in love. We just started studying Momotaro this week. I can't wait to see the book in person. What a perfect capture and spot on match of this week's theme.
@eloisestapleton -- I just looked -- that's incredibly surprising and humbling, and makes me so happy that this photo "spoke" to the selector. I really, really liked your submission for it, too. Thanks for the news, and for your support!
@tishpics -- many thanks for your kind remarks, and the fav! I especially appreciate how you say "shows all you want perfectly" because that's been my goal on this journey -- to try to figure out how to express myself through photographs.
@taffy -- you know from the description that yours is what inspired me. '
For anyone else reading this post, be sure to check out Taffy's exquisite photo (a top five finalist in the Mundane Language theme) at: http://365project.org/taffy/365/2013-02-05
I saw your picture the other day, I wanted to post a comment but all the right words and comments had been made by the other 365ers. in this conversation thread. I'll just say that I love Japanese art, its stylization, itts linearity and neatness, it grace and elegance. All of thi is well represented by your exquisite photo.
February 13th, 2013
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and for anyone else reading this, please take a look at Eloise's interesting photo:
http://365project.org/eloisestapleton/365/2013-02-08
For anyone else reading this post, be sure to check out Taffy's exquisite photo (a top five finalist in the Mundane Language theme) at: http://365project.org/taffy/365/2013-02-05
Well done