Portrait of an Island by Shinichiro Shiraishi　ある島の肖像

The windowpane of the taxi I got on is distorted;
the landscape before me jumps into sight with reduced resolution.

One of the photos curves along the distortion,
and another ignores the focal point of the windowpane to form an image.
These images are not famous landscape photographs that represent the details of the island or
its vast nature; they are not anywhere, but somewhere that carries a kind of anonymity.

For me, as a Japanese who has been looking at landscapes with an animistic mindset,
that is, with a perspective of nature as a matter of prayer and thoughts,
the images that were obtained through the device of a
‘distorted car window’ that I saw by chance is a rediscovery
that landscapes are not only objects, but also subjects.
The act of shooting the landscape that runs by while riding in a taxi,
transforms the pursuit of images into a passive, act of ‘hunting by trapping’.
The images that are taken unconsciously diverge from
the interacting path between the landscape and
the photographer (person), and the subjectivity of the landscape emerges, even more.

Landscape photos that are not thought of.
This might be yet another possibility.

Once again, I long for the fact that the answer can be only found in the photographs.