Echoes of Self

Echoes of Self is a photographic journey through memory, identity, and belonging in search of Ikigai, life’s purpose. Through self-portraits in the landscape, it reflects on transformation, resilience, and our enduring relationship with nature.

Echoes of Self is an ongoing photographic exploration of memory, identity, and belonging in search of Ikigai—the Japanese concept of a life lived with purpose and meaning. Presented as a series of handcrafted leporello books, the project unfolds through seven interconnected chapters that trace an inner journey from uncertainty and separation toward acceptance, connection, and belonging.

Using a 4×5-inch large-format camera and hand-coated nineteenth-century dry plates on glass, I create self-portraits within the landscape, where the natural world becomes both setting and metaphor. Forests, rivers, deserts, mountains, and open horizons reflect emotional and psychological states, while the recurring presence of my own body serves not as autobiography, but as a universal human figure through which viewers may recognize their own experiences of transformation.

The historical dry plate process is central to the work’s meaning. Its deliberate pace demands patience, contemplation, and acceptance of unpredictability. I intentionally introduce imperfections—bubbles, streaks, light leaks, and irregularities—into each hand-coated glass plate. These physical traces become visual metaphors for memory, vulnerability, resilience, and the imperfections that shape every life. Rather than correcting these marks, I embrace them as an essential part of the narrative.

Each chapter explores a distinct stage of the journey: memories of movement and discovery, aspirations and dreams, relationships with the natural world, moments of solitude and reflection, experiences of belonging, uncertainty about the future, and finally an awareness of humanity’s inseparable connection to nature. Together, the books form a continuous visual meditation in which each chapter contributes to a larger philosophical narrative.

The leporello format reinforces this idea of continuity. Each book unfolds as a single uninterrupted sequence, inviting the viewer to move physically through the work and mirroring the gradual unfolding of self-understanding. The object becomes an extension of the narrative itself, encouraging a slower and more contemplative engagement.

Rather than presenting definitive answers, Echoes of Self invites viewers to reflect on their own search for purpose, belonging, and identity. It proposes that Ikigai is not simply found but discovered through an ongoing dialogue between self, memory, time, and the living landscape.