George Nobechi

Here. Still. Two-and-a-half years ago, I departed New York City on what eventually became a 990-day odyssey, leaving behind a broken relationship, career, home and all my possessions except for my camera and what I could carry on my back. I did so because this was the first time since...
Here. Still. Two-and-a-half years ago, I departed New York City on what eventually became a 990-day odyssey, leaving behind a broken relationship, career, home and all my possessions except for my camera and what I could carry on my back. I did so because this was the first time since my father abruptly passed away when I was 19 that I had the time and space to dig deeper into my recollections. As I journeyed, I made photographs where I could feel the presence of everyday humanity and the stillness of natural tranquility. Making these images helped me to express my feelings towards my father's early death and my life's course in its aftermath. I soon discovered that to contextualize the settings in which I found myself, I had subconsciously begun to recall my upbringing in the organized chaos that is Tokyo. From my bedroom window as a child I spent hours upon hours gazing out at the sprawling city below and found a calmness that was elusive whenever I ventured out of the sanctuary of my room. I also began to see that a second theme was emerging in how I photographed “borrowed scenery,” a technique known as 'shakkei' in Japanese gardening, but that borrowed scenery alone was not enough to go as deep as I needed. It was once again windows that gave me the familiar and comforting frame through which I could access places deep within my memory while looking out at the calming stillness of life just beyond the glass. I make photographs in the places where I find these elements--nothing in this series is staged—to capture a still moment in time that recalls something from our past, like a distant, but familiar bell tolling for us to come back and find life here again.
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Potter's Studio and Rural Train at Dusk (Yamadera, Japan)
Tennis Courts in the Rain (Hokkaido, Japan)
Forest in Snow (Lake Chuzenji, Japan)
Island from Train Window (Izu, Japan)
Visitor Center (Great Sand Dunes National Park, USA)
Hotel Room, Lake Louise (Banff National Park, Canada)
Kitchen Window (Saguaro National Park, USA)
The Devil's Bridge (Bagni di Lucca, Italy)
Cafeteria Window (Ichinoseki, Japan)
Hallway Window One Week after the Cherry Blossoms (Kitakami, Japan)