Softcover, www.graf-publishers.com

„In the spring of 2001 I moved to a small town called Abashiri.
That town, where I spent four years from the age of 18, sees the salmon return in each short summer and ice floes cover the ocean every long winter.
There I for the first time felt nature encompass all human activity.
Attracted by the simple scenes born of nature I learned to enjoy just being moved by what was in front of me.
I left Abashiri in 2005, bearing for some time after a feeling of desolation.
What I’d taken for granted turned into after-images that only existed in my soul.
It was after realising that what brought me joy was being moved by what I saw that I took up photography, out of my desire to preserve it.
I felt that by photographing what I did not want to forget I might fill the loneliness I felt.
The first town I visited carrying a camera, in 2007, was Abashiri.
I took my first pictures there, buffeted by the North Wind.“