Why, ever since the very first day I set foot in Japan and laid eyes on it twenty years ago, have I had this strange feeling that I’m in my spiritual home?

Of course, I am clear-eyed and critical of many social and political aspects of Japan that I do not idealize, particularly regarding the status of women, working conditions, and the violence of its history. But from the soul of this great civilization, thousands of years old, something reaches out to me and moves through me, without words, as if it were self-evident. Is it the strength of an island culture, the enchantment of true otherness, the fruit of a quest for elsewhere? Perhaps, but in a simpler, eminently subtle way—I know it. I feel within me this resonance which, after a dozen trips, only grows stronger, deeper, and fills me with profound joy, along a calm and slow journey.

That is why, stepping away from my usual thematic and universalist series, I wanted to share a series of photographs on Japan—not to isolate it as a model or an exotic phenomenon, but to offer a glimpse into this intimate world that embodies the essence of what is most important to me.

The regal stride of a swan, a mysterious guide, a tree that has never known human hands, a temple of impermanence, a child’s play, a gardener of the heavens—everything speaks to me, everything makes sense to me. And I hope that for you, too, everything will become a gaze, a silence, a joyful contemplation.