2015 / Book / Fine Art

Dingle

  • Photographer
    Kazuyuki Okajima
  • Prizes
    Bronze in Book (Series Only)/Nature

The Dingle Peninsula lies to the west end of the continental Europe. It is located in southwest of Ireland and stretches out to the Atlantic Ocean. Because of its diametrically opposite location to Japan, I had thought vaguely that it was a land somewhere faraway. When I visited Dingle Peninsula for the first time, I felt my heart was healed by the sceneries: the sunlight was particularly soft and was nothing like that of Japan in any season; the sky and the clouds were so close as if I could touch them; the nature was mysterious and beautiful, and native to Ireland; and the sheep were grazing freely in the meadow. I felt all the sceneries to be photogenic. The wide and steep cliffs that were affected by the sever blow of the wind from the Atlantic ocean and the rolling green pastures on the wide stretch of peat are not the landscapes that we see in Japan. However I felt somewhat nostalgic by the panoramic vistas. The sea had brought numerous blessings to mankind from the old age and thus many remains of Celtic civilization dot along the coastline. It could be the reason why I had felt nostalgia for this land.