Why I keep taking photos

I got to fly more often than I’d expected — for trips and for returning home. Even on the same route, the view from the window is a little different every time.

I’m drawn to places where you can feel people’s lives and daily doings — stations, convenience stores, unremarkable streets. Turning my eyes to places I’d normally overlook, I feel I can glimpse a little of what makes that place itself. For my first time living alone, too, I chose a room with a view of the expressway.

It began on a past trip to Europe, when I suddenly wanted to take different photos than usual, and the theme I settled on was “up.” Amid architecture and streetscapes unlike Asia’s — rooftops, Ferris wheels, street lamps — I kept shooting the views I looked up at.

Since I began taking photos, my walking pace has slowed a little. I stop because something “somehow catches my eye,” or turn back even after passing by. I’ve come to gaze a little longer at scenery I’d have overlooked before.

This time spent gazing at scenery and noticing small moments of dissonance seems, in the end, to influence my everyday work a little, too.

In the past I often “shot because it was beautiful,” but now I sometimes press the shutter without a reason. There are photos I look back on later and think, “why did I take this?”

I don’t necessarily use the photos in my work or post them on social media. Not to show anyone — I just want to keep the scenery that caught my eye at that time. When I look back later, I can recall, “ah, I was seeing a view like this back then.” That alone makes me glad I take photos.