TITLE: Gulf Coast Expressway

As I drive along the highway at 120 km/h, the cityscape unfolds before me, rushing by in an instant. The view from my car window symbolizes the advancement of civilization, with buildings, factories, and residential areas flashing into view one after another. These structures narrate the story of our society's evolution, forming the very foundation that supports our daily lives.

The silhouettes of skyscrapers against the sunset-hued sky shine like emblems of human creativity, while the gently shifting clouds evoke the beauty of nature. In this moment, I find myself liberated from the hustle and bustle of civilization, utterly captivated by the panorama that stretches before me. As the car accelerates, the scenery transforms instantaneously, creating the illusion that time itself is speeding up.

This landscape, where civilization and nature coexist, reflects our remarkable evolution, yet I cannot help but feel the overwhelming presence of nature that envelops everything. The contrast between the achievements of civilization and the enduring strength of nature invites profound contemplation.

I yearn to preserve this moment forever. With a click of my camera, I capture this stunning vista—an embodiment of the interplay between civilization and nature, humanity and society—etched indelibly in my memory.

AUTHOR: Dai Nakamura (Japan)

I was born in 1970 in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, (RISD) in Providence, RI, I am now based in both New York and Japan. My photography explores a wide range of human experience—a working class New England community, Japanese family relations and social customs, landscape and urban development, a non-cliche essay about cherry blossoms—reflecting Japanese aesthetics and interaction with nature. I have collaborated in the commercial industry with my fine art photography and runs my own photographic agency in Yokohama. My work has been in solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., and Japan, and is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Danforth Museum of Art, Fidelity Corporation, The Worcester Museum of Art, in Massachusetts, USA, and the Shionoe Museum, Shionoe, Japan, among others.