TITLE: All the Fading Words

In my native language, Japanese, there is an expression that compares WORDS to WATER DROPLETS. (”kotoba no tsuyu”)It is a rhetorical device that metaphorically expresses a certain aesthetic sense of the ephemerality of words.

In this work, the abstract theme of “words” is expressed through the metaphor of “reflections in a puddle”.
The phenomenon itself, which is like a slideshow unfolding in the same place, is surprisingly similar to the act of pressing the shutter button on a camera, and can also be seen as an analogy for “speech”.

And the ambiguity of the outline of the image that emerges with the ripples on the surface of the water seems to visualize the workings of human memory.
In this work, I observed puddles in the same spot with a narrow radius, and visually expressed the flow of time and its transience. (The actual image is blurred due to the effect of the split-image filter attached to the lens.)

AUTHOR: Asako Naruto (Spain)

Born in Japan, Asako is a Madrid-based photographer specializing in street photography. After studying design at an art university in Tokyo, she pursued a specialization in art history at Nagoya University. She has been based in Madrid since 2005 for her Ph.D. research.

Her work has gained international recognition, winning the Grand Prix for two consecutive years at both the Paris International Street Photo Awards and the B&W International Awards, as well as 1st Place at the Fine Art Photography Awards. To date, she has received over 50 international photography awards.

In 2025, she was named Best Photographer of the Year in the Street Photography category at 35AWARDS and served as an international juror representing Spain.

In 2024, she was invited to exhibit at ART-ICON Paris, alongside work by David Lynch.
Her first monograph, All the Fading Words, will be published in 2025.