Japanese photographer Hayato Wakabayashi braves the treacherous colds of mountainous Japan to take pictures of frozen waterfalls and caves. The otherworldly photographs stem from a fascination “with the imperceptible growth built from repeated elements in nature.” But Wakabayashi’s ultimate inspiration comes from a place deeper than caves: Simone Weil, the 20th century French philosopher who became posthumously famous for her writings on mysticism.
“Nothing can escape gravity,” writes Wakabayashi. “There is a natural order that exists outside our rationalized ideas. Gravity holds all that exists.” The artist exhibits nature’s order through photographing the effects of gravity that aren’t always perceivable in our daily lives.
Hayato Wakabayashi’s photographs will be on view at hpgrp gallery in Tokyo from March 27 – April 25, 2015.
All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception. Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void. The imagination is continually at work filling up all the fissures through which grace might pass.
― Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
