"I´ve started taking photos as a travel photographer ten years ago and in 2016 I was ready to visit the unknown and fascinating country Japan. I didn´t know what to expect but I was very excited and knew that great photo-spots are waiting. Before I traveled to Japan, I tried to find the spots I wanted to visit, through browsing the internet to find interesting places. When I was ready, I selected almost 200 spots on my online-map and already knew, that I won´t make them all.

Japans most common religions, Shintoism and Buddhism, are very alive in every corner of the country. Even far away, in the middle of the pacific ocean, on the highest mountains and in the darkest forests, I found shrines and torii, the traditional japanese gates most commonly found at the entrance of a shinto-shrine. A torii symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. As a photographer I like to create clear, minimalistic photos in black and white but in Japan I started using my colour-skills to intensify the strong contrasts of japanese culture. From the beginning I was fascinated of the contrast between perfectionism and their connection to the environment and nature.

Most of the time I am using different neutral density filters to enhance the effect of minimalism in my works. The longer I am able to expose, the clearer the photos I get because I am loosing every structure of the water and the sky. After three weeks of exploring Japan for my first time I knew that I definitely will come back as soon as possible. A lot of fascinating places are still waiting for me though I drove more than 6.000 kilometers in this short time. Japan, we will meet again!"