Starting a New Story (2010-2014)

 

ある日、隣町で奇妙な形をした廃棄物処理工場を見つけ、興味を覚えて撮影を始めた。その町には雑木林や畑の間に工場や倉庫が点在していた。

この町に通い始めたのは、両親の介護に追われていた時期だった。老いは誰にでも訪れるものだが、親の報われない最後に虚しさを感じていた。

撮影を始めてしばらくして、父が亡くなった。痩せ細り、枯れ葉がカサカサと落ちていくような最期だった。あの古い工場がきしみを立てて稼働する姿が、働き尽くして朽ちていく父の姿に重なった。そして、父の最期の日々に十分に手を尽くせなかった自分を深く悔やんだ。老いや死という抗えない現実を受け入れきれず、私は父と共に歩むことができなかったのだ。

その町には日々、さまざまな廃材が運び込まれ、高く積み上げられていく。それらはやがて工場で処理され、新しい何かに姿を変えて町を出ていく。役目を終えたものも、また別の形を与えられるのだ。人も同じなのかもしれない。どのような人生であろうと、人は皆一様に死を迎え、土に還り、全体と同化しながら循環していく。父の肉体も魂も、また新しい何かへと生まれ変わるのだろう。普遍の現実に尻込みした私もまた、同じこのダイナミックな流れに乗ってゆくのだ。

重く垂れ込めた雲の向こう、かすかな光の先に、どこまでも変化し続ける世界があった。 

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One day, I came across a waste treatment plant with a strange architecture in a neighboring town, and intrigued by its presence, I began taking photographs. In that town, factories and warehouses were scattered among copses and farm fields.

I began visiting this town while overwhelmed by the care of my parents. Though aging comes to everyone, I felt a deep emptiness at the unrewarded end of my parents' lives. Shortly after I started photographing, my father passed away. He had grown thin, his departure like a dry leaf falling with a faint rustle. The creaking operations of that old factory overlapped with the image of my father, who had worked tirelessly only to decay. I deeply regretted that I had not done enough for him during his final days; unable to accept the unyielding reality of aging and death, I had failed to walk alongside him.

Every day, various materials are brought into this town and piled high. Processed in the factories, they are transformed into something new before leaving the town behind. Even after fulfilling their initial purpose, they are granted a new form of existence. Perhaps the same is true for human beings. Whatever life one leads, all eventually meet death, return to the soil, and circulate as they assimilate into the whole. My father’s body and soul, too, will surely be reborn into something new. And I, who once shrank back from this universal reality, am carried along within this same dynamic flow.

Beyond the heavy, overcast clouds, in the faint light, lay a world continuing to transform boundlessly.

 

 

 

Print

Paper: Canson Rag Photographique

Print: Archival Pigment Print

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