DOJO: A Series Shot Over 12 Years
New series
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DOJO – The Daily Practice of Aikido
From an intuition 12 years ago to a photo series
I keep a vivid memory of the day I sent this e-mail to my Aikido teacher Denis. At the time, I had been studying this Japanese martial art for half a decade and had already taken quite a few photos of fellow aikidokas practicing techniques on various occasions. On this summer day of 2015 however, something prompted me to ask him, on a much more formal tone than usual, if he would allow me to come with my camera to take photos more regularly during his classes in the future. I was a teenager back then yet, without the slightest hesitation, he said “yes”.
Dojos – and my dojo in particular – have always been a subject of interest to me. Their very simple and elegant architecture make them timeless. And when you enter a dojo, it feels like entering a parenthesis in your daily life. In this way, they offer space for human emotions to get expressed. Dojos are extraordinary places shaped by the ordinary.
The desire to capture the sparkles of life happening before my eyes in the dojo has probably emerged from discovering the mind blowing work of photographer Lauren Marek a few years earlier. In Work in progress, she gives a long-running daily account of the local community life of her hometown of Bellville, Texas and its effervescence during American football games. The way she pictured so beautifully the movements, demonstrates her knowledge of the discipline as well as its rhythm.
While Aikido is aesthetically pleasant to watch, my desire to photograph it may have been less fed by the desire to document the discipline and its particularities, than the emergence of a great feeling of humanity between its practicioners while training. In my own practice, I sometimes feel struck by the presence of someone performing a technique. And in those times when martiality and concentration are at their utmost and shape the room’s atmosphere, it is however not uncommon to witness a smile, laughs, sparks in eyes and a generosity suddenly appear in people practicing together.
The practice of Aikido is based on the repetition of body movements and techniques. Just like every martial art its learning needs no rush, but regularity. And so did this photo series. Each year, as the sports season came to an end, I remember looking at the few good images I had captured, being very happy about some of them, but realizing I still didn’t have enough material to tell the story I wanted to tell. This year, however, the feeling happened to be different. Making Dojo, shot over 12 years, my longest-running series so far. And I’m happy to share it with you today!
Thank you for reading! If that ever made you feel emotions or sparked an idea, feel free to leave a comment on Substack and to share this email around. Until the next one, take care!
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