In the Flap of a Bird's Wing, Water Dries Up

Eriko Masaoka (b. 1983, Japanese) began taking photographs at the age of 20, by visiting small villages across Japan, and while living on a ranch in Hokkaido and in an Ainu community—the latter, of which experiences, shaped her artistic direction.

Without a specific intention in mind, Masaoka decided on her destinations, followed her thoughts, and continued her journey while taking pictures. Subsequent to a decade in the making, this story was concluded.

In this book, people, animals, man-made objects, herself, and nature all have souls and emit life as living organisms, as if in an animistic worldview; comparing all life to a drop of rain and celebrating all life that may be short and fleeting.

The photographs were taken in Hokkaido, Okinawa (and its surrounding islands of Iriomote and Aguni), Kagoshima, Kikaijima, the Tōhoku region (Akita, Aomori, Nagano and Niigata), Tokyo, Osaka, Mount Kōya, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Gullfoss in Iceland, and the Azores of Macaronesia.

The book contains a preface, in Japanese, written by Eriko Masaoka, with an English translation.