Although Japanese photographer Hideo Kobayashi created the "Shield" series back in 2013, we have been looking through some photographers from our archives that balance nature with something otherworldly. Of his career, his gallery, Emon Photo, notes, "Kobayashi maintains a consistent thematic approach, and his creative process stems from an attempt to negate the ‘everyday-ness’ of things. In Falling Light (2011) light is dropped onto a river surface to create pieces somehow reminiscent of the animism that hides in the Japanese psyche. Shield (2013), features a large cocoon-like ball of light, positioned in scenes of isolation to create the extraordinary out of the everyday."
On Kobayashi's site, he describes "Shield" in poetic nature, translated from Japanese: "Shooting has the feeling that you are in a large format camera. Open the shutter and in front of the camera (go inside the frame), use a simple device to illuminate the area with light. Then, when the work is finished, go outside the frame and close the shutter. By acting in the frame directly on the entire screen, the light shield transforms the familiar landscape into an extraordinary space."
