TITLE: Setsuna no Itteki: An Instant's Drop

Over a decade of living in Japan, silence gradually ceased to be a mere external condition and instead became a profound immersion that stripped away all narrative, compelling an engagement with my surroundings born entirely of pure observation. It is from this precise practice of attention that my work emerges, approaching silence not as the literal absence of sound, but as a deliberate strategy of introspection, a posture not unlike the quiet recitation of a sutra.

Within this space, Buddhist practice refuses to separate the sacred from the natural world, suggesting that the incense slowly dissolving in a temple vessel and the heavy water drop resting upon a lotus leaf participate in the exact same reality: the momentary arising of form from emptiness, and its inevitable return. Thus, this series does not attempt to trace a path from one state to another, but rather insists, through the suspension of linear progression, that they were never truly apart.

Operating as a held interval, each image seeks to inhabit the Japanese notion of Ma (間), a charged and resonant gap where tension persists, so that the photographs themselves oscillate constantly between eruption and stillness, between a light that dazzles and one that merely survives, enacting the very cycle they contemplate. Meaning here is not extracted but encountered, arising from recurrence rather than difference, asking the viewer to align their perception just as the Heart Sutra reminds us that form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. In embracing the risk of austerity, I propose this deliberate repetition as a vital way to remain present within impermanence, briefly touching upon the profound nature of Kū (空), that ultimate Emptiness from which all fleeting forms emerge and to which they invariably return.

AUTHOR: Juan Carlos Pinto (Japan)

A photographer from Mexico based in Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Literature from the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas and is a Master's degree candidate in Literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He is the author of the short story book "El largo espejismo". He was the deputy director of the State Company of Oral Narration of Zacatecas.

In 2011, he moved to Tokyo, and in 2015, he began his photographic activity. He is certified in Art Photography and Digital Imaging by Temple University Japan Campus. In 2019, by recommendation of the Cultural Section of the Embassy of Mexico in Japan, he represented Mexico at the World Art Tokyo 2019 with his series "Los Rastros Solitarios de la Luz". To date, he has participated in over twenty collective and individual exhibitions in Japan, Mexico, and other countries. He has published three photography books: "Los Rastros Solitarios de la Luz" (TEXERE, Mexico, 2019), "THE BUNKERS", and "REES' BUNKER" (both by ENYSi, Japan, 2021). The compilation book "Jiko Kyōkai" (KAMI, Spain) was published in 2025.

He has been awarded, among others, the Excellence Award and the Jury Prize at the "Epson meet up! selection" (2017 and 2018 respectively, Japan), the International Second Place in the landscape category of the "Head On Awards 2021" (Australia), and the Bronze Medal in the Architecture/Cityscape category of the "Tokyo International Foto Awards 2021" (Japan). He was also selected as a finalist in the LensCulture Street Photography Awards 2022 (Netherlands), won a Bronze Medal at the PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris 2023 (France), and was a double semi-finalist in the Street Photography and Spaces categories at the Urban Photography Awards 2023 (Italy), as well as second place in the Nature category at the Monochrome Photography Awards 2025.

In his transition from the world of words to the world of photography, Pinto continues to apply a principle of selection and restriction in his work: what is said is as important as what is left unsaid; what is not present in the photograph is as important as what is. Thus, in his photographic work, he seeks to simplify the selection of space and bring a single subject into play. Rather than the interaction between subjects, he tries to reflect on the unnoticed interaction of subjects with their environment and the ephemeral passage of light. His intention is for the viewer to find in his work a reflection of the aesthetic potential of their own daily life and the world around them.

Among his influences are the images and narratives of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, the literature of the Latin American Boom, and the work of photographers such as Fan Ho and Sam Abell.