Thoughts < Actions

It was probably exactly a year ago.

"If you could make anything you wanted to make, what would it be?"

" said Mr. Ono from the mirror.

Days, weeks, months passed as I simply asked myself these questions, but in the end I produced nothing.

Until now, I was always the one receiving requests from others, in other words, the one taking the orders, and I had forgotten to think about what I wanted to create.

I thought back about 10 years ago and wondered why I had forgotten.

I first encountered photography and video when I was a student creating a guidebook for a town.

I had no equipment, knowledge, or skills, but I was having so much fun just trying to take pictures by trial and error. I spent a year creating a guidebook, and when I looked at it,

I still remember how impressed I was and thought, "I've created something amazing."

In reality, the printed photos are stretched out, the design is messy, and there are strange lines on the cover, so I can't look at it now.

However, it is true that I was so drawn to the joy of making things that I began to believe this way.

Little by little, I got all my equipment, went into the studio to learn about the techniques and work processes, and was gradually given more commissioned work. Before I knew it, I was making things that other people wanted me to make, rather than making things that I wanted to make myself.

Looking back, I think it was probably around this time that I stopped thinking about what I wanted to create.

What was once "photography and video = fun" changed to "photography and video = things to survive."

Let's go back to the beginning.

"Something that lets you make what you want to make?"

A year ago, I was just searching in my head for the meaning and reason behind what I was creating.

Mr. Ono, who was watching me fidgeting and thinking, said to me:

"You can't create anything unless you take pictures."

After hearing that, I made a rule to collect photos of natural objects for about a year and update them on YouTube every week.

When I started taking photos of natural objects, I never imagined that they would end up being used in Ota Miho's music video for "Haru to Kamisama."

These images, which would never have been created if I hadn't started photographing nature a year ago, now exist.

It's true what Ono says: I really think that I can't create anything unless I take pictures.

What else do you still want to create?

I don't know what the answer is yet, but right now I enjoy taking photos and videos. I feel like that's enough meaning to creating.

There are only two months left in 2021. I’m going to keep flying around until the very end without thinking too much about it.

Yudai Oda