Naoyuki Ogino During a Book Signing
COURTESY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER

I am also interested in cultures that define themselves in terms of the stored energies of their surroundings, especially the Mongoloid people, who moved from Asia to American through the Bering Sea during the Ice Age. I was very surprised to have discovered them when I stayed in Mexico during my childhood, and recognised in the Mongoloid people similarities between native Mexicans and Japanese.

I keep my inspirations alive through travels — overseas travels or simply daily life “travels.” Connecting with other art forms helps me “breathe.” Meeting new people or surroundings, discovering new perspectives, being conscient and present in my daily life…all these bring in oxygen for my inspirations.

You were a scientist before! Why did you decide to abandon physics and devote your life to a camera?

I wasn’t a good physics student, but I liked (and still like) to think about the universe. I wanted to become an astro-physicist. But after studying physics in mathematical terms, I felt the limits of my motivation… I wanted to understand not just the linear or mathematical angle of this discipline, I also wanted to learn about the non-mathematical or non-verbal philosophies that relate to my surroundings. Let’s use the “yin-yang” metaphor as an example.

In our society today that is mostly governed by capitalism, people live their lives that way too: ‘yang’ dominates ‘yin.’ When this realisation dawned on me, I decided to adopt a lifestyle that takes care of both the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ elements, and to work in a medium that allows me to express myself entirely.”

Mathematics is like a part of the “yang” that does not take much of the “yin” into account. This does not simply apply to mathematics. In our society today that is mostly governed by capitalism, people live their lives that way too: “yang” dominates “yin.” When this realisation dawned on me, I decided to adopt a lifestyle that takes care of “yin” and “yang” elements, and to work in a medium that allows me to express myself entirely.

When I was young, my father moved between Japan and Mexico on three occasions. We moved together. So I had many cross-cultural encounters. Facing new classmates in a foreign country without understanding their language, I had to feel the atmosphere and stare at their expressions in order to understand them. This became my habit, to express what I smelt or felt through staring, that is. That is how photography became my best tool for communication. And this is the main reason why I choose photography.

Do you seek a kind of truth when taking pictures? What do you allow your images to capture?

No. I do not seek a kind of truth from my photographs.

A Geisha's Journey
BY Naoyuki Ogino

I believe in the strength of photography for imitating nature, but I would not say this is the “truth.”

In Japanese, the word “photograph” is translated as “shasin,” which is composed of two Chinese characters that literally mean “graphing/ tracing” and “truth.” I think this is a translation “mistake” or bias when importing the characters “photography” from other cultures into the Japanese language

This misleading translation has an unconscious (but not insignificant) effect on us, particularly on the vision of Japanese photographers concerning the art of photography.

At least I was very much affected. In the past, I was very conscious of seeking the truth, like a journalist. But now, I tend to consider this as a biased view, i.e. the fact that photography reveals the truth. It is a bias akin to seeing only the “yang” element out of the “yin-yang” combination.