Somewhere not Here

In ‘Somewhere not Here' Toshiya Watanabe goes into the depths of his consciousness to create his magical realistic images. Reality disappears in the photographs of real landscapes, resulting in a feeling of being “not here, somewhere else”. Watanabe conveys to the viewer a feeling of disquietness, instability, amidst the beauty of his images. His intention of bringing us to this in-between world might be influenced by the Japanese concept of ‘ma’, creating interruptions or absences to establish moments of awareness and contemplation. The emptiness in Watanabe’s images make us pause, reflect, enhance our thinking and how we engage in the world around us.