Bankei

This body of work is a series of photographs of printed photographs depicting Bankei, a little-known and now largely forgotten Japanese form of miniature landscape art.

This body of work is a series of photographs of printed photographs depicting bankei, a little-known and now largely forgotten Japanese form of miniature landscape art. The original prints were found at a local antique market among discarded snapshot photographs that appear to have once belonged to a single, unknown individual. 

I encountered bankei for the first time through these images and began researching the practice. Bankei is a distinctly Japanese art form in which landscapes are constructed from unfired, soil-based materials on shallow trays and often dismantled to create new works. The practice developed alongside growing ecological concerns in the 1960s, the same period in which these prints were likely photographed by their maker shortly before being destroyed.

This project is not an attempt to document or revive bankei. By re-photographing these found prints, I knowingly participate in an act of “stealing,” enabled by photography’s claims to anonymity and documentary neutrality. The work invites reflection on how photography authorizes acts of taking, recontextualizing, and reassigning value, thereby shaping what is preserved, what is forgotten, and who is allowed to speak through images.