Nobuyuki Kobayashi

 'Perfectly Imperfect': Kobayashi Nobuyuki (1970)

Kobayashi Nobuyuki’s work focuses on the infinite nature, its transience and impermanence. He feels that “seeing the grace in the way something sprouts up and then withers”, leads to the experience of wabi sabi. He prints his images on the natural washi paper using a technique called platinum palladium printing, while deliberately showing irregularities in the rims around his beautiful images. 

Kobayashi encourages us to being more natural, meaning “accepting nature and coexisting with it.” He points out that we benefit from nature, but that nature can also destroy us. The Japanese have a particular awe for nature given the susceptibility of the country to natural disasters. For them it is inevitable to have a feeling of gratitude for “being kept alive”. This attitude is deeply rooted in Japanese life and is the basis of the concept of ‘Myriads of gods’, referring to the animistic belief that a god dwells in all things and that we should live our lives with gratitude to every single object. Kobayashi has honoured this concept in his series ‘Myriads of gods’:

“My works emerge from those concepts and notions. Though my objects are nature landscapes such as stones, trees and water, I sublimate them into artworks by having the privilege of photographing the "portraits" of gods who dwell there.”