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In the small space of a garden, the dense cycles of time are seen.

Taking photographs is a way for me to halt the flow of the passing days. It renders invisible the repetition of seasons, which can be likened to a circle, and blocks a direct view of changes. Through photography, I arrest this flow around a specific place, creating lines of demarcation where none existed before. This gives rise to questions regarding the places I photograph. The color green informs my approach to one particular garden. I am fascinated by plants. They exist as an unending cycle of change where lush growth withers and flourishes and fades again.

My grandfather grew plants and vegetables. He weeded and watered them, continuing this work for 50 years.
This garden is a place where traces of his efforts are felt everywhere. He used the leftovers from meals to make compost, and mixed different types of soil suitable for each plant. Every year he created handmade trellises and stakes to help the plants grow. Odds and ends leftover from everyday life played a part here as tools. For only a brief moment, these various objects lent their power. Inadvertently, the garden became a kind of basket that held all sorts of seeds and living things. Seeds planted in pots were overtaken by self-seeking co- habitants who came to live with them. Fruit split open and dried up, spilling their seeds out over the ground. [...]

Here two forces intersect: plants wildly growing, and my grandfather's hands. Though the moment when the ratio reversed cannot be known now, this convergence of life that began with seeds planted 50 years ago has drawn near, like the ripples of a pond, and has spilled out a little more each time the seeds have sprouted.

How many plants have taken root in the garden? I wondered about this as I watched the repeated cycle of this green ebb and flow. In the winter of my fourth year as a photographer, my grandfather departed from this world. The planter of seeds was absent. Even so, the garden, laid open to the transition of seasons, took hold of the seeds in its soil with an expansive embrace and helped them sprout. [...]

People desire plants. They raise them, and co-exist with them. People come and go and places change their appearance. This happens countless times, not only in this garden, but in a great number of places. Does the repetition and circular flow of things continue without end? To look intently at this garden's limited space is to know the unceasing intertwining of people and plants. When I close my eyes and touch the greenery, these boundaries intermingle. At that moment, I am in a dwelling where all life blends into one.

Shun Kataoka (b. 1984) focuses on mutual relationships between humans and nature, in his photography. His major solo exhibitions to date include "Life Works" at Nikon Salon in Tokyo and Osaka in 2019. In 2020, Kataoka was selected as one of the finalists for the "Backyard Pitch Grant program". Additionally, in 2022, He won the "KYOTOGRAPHIE International Portfolio Review 2021 DELTA Award".