Hanabi
Fireworks set off on summer nights are a summer tradition in Japan. Fireworks are brightly colored, but they are also ephemeral as they open for a moment and then disappear, so they are set off during Obon, the festival to commemorate the souls of our ancestors. In other words, fireworks symbolize the Japanese aesthetic sense of ``miyabi'' and ``mono no aware,'' and their ``transience'' highlights the beauty of ``elegance.''
Large fireworks are made up of small fireworks, and when they shoot up into the sky, they instantly spread out in concentric circles and then disappear. However, in normal photographs, they appear as a whole in a circular shape, and cannot express the minute sparks or the appearance of them bursting and disappearing. For this reason, I photograph fireworks using a technique called ICM (intentional camera movement), in other words, by moving the camera. If you take pictures of fireworks while moving the camera, the fireworks will move relatively quickly and appear as lines in the photo. In other words, like a seismograph, you can stretch out the flickering over time and take detailed pictures. There is a degree of freedom in how you move the camera that you don't have in fixed photography, so by rotating or shaking it a little, I create an abstract expression that adds a sense of elegance and fluctuation.
夏の夜に打ち上げられる花火は日本の夏の風物詩です。色鮮やかな花火ですが、一瞬開いて消える花火は儚いものでもあり、鎮魂の意味で先祖を迎える「お盆」の時期に打ち上げられています。つまり花火は「雅（みやび）」と「もののあはれ」という日本人の美意識を象徴するもので、その「儚さ」が「雅」の美しさを際立たせています。
大きな花火は小さな花火が集まって出来ていて、空に打ち上るとそれらは一瞬で同心円状に広がりやがて消えていきます。しかし通常の写真ではそれらは円状に一体となって写り、細やかな火花や弾ける様子と消えゆく様子は表現できません。そのため私は花火をICM（Intentional camera movement）という手法、つまりカメラを動かしながら撮影しています。カメラを動かしながら花火を撮ると、花火は相対的に早く動いて写真には線として写ります。つまり地震計のようにその明滅を時間軸で伸ばして詳細に写し撮る事が出来るのです。カメラを動かして撮る「動かし方」には固定撮影にはない自由度があるので、回転させたり少し揺らす事で「風情」や「揺らぎ」を加えた抽象表現しています。