"Beautiful" is an instinct.

 — it is not a matter of reason, but of instinct.
In that instant of recognition, one encounters Yuragi—the subtle fluctuation—
and meets Nagi, the stillness within motion.
Through photography, I seek to return this sensation to its origin—to give it back to light itself.

“Cogito ergo sum — I think, therefore I am.”
And yet, I simply feel.
Whenever we think or remember, a faint vibration arises—
a texture of consciousness, a yuragi that affirms our being.
My work attempts to capture that gentle comfort—
the breathing rhythm of light and shadow.
It becomes a re-experience of beauty,
a quiet resonance of feeling—something like memory, or a premonition—
a record of qualia that words cannot contain.

At the root of art lies a primal sensibility beyond language.
It appears as a slight tremor at the threshold of expression,
a wave of awareness drifting between being and nothingness.
Through that boundary, I have come to perceive what I call Zero-Horizon formula.
"Zero-Horizon formula"—a concept born through my own process of contemplation—
inherits the essence of Limit Art, yet passes through its utmost point
to return once more toward silence.
In that space, form and time dissolve,
and only the yuragi—the breath of existence itself—remains.
That quiet state of being forms the heart of my photographic expression,
unfolding into a worldview I call Zero-Horizon—the horizon of zero.

The monochrome realm is my sanctuary for this silence.
By sealing away color, I lead reality into abstraction,
entrusting thought to the infinite gradations of light and shadow.
It is a return to origins, yet also a way of looking forward—
my contemporary response to In Praise of Shadows.

When I turn my thoughts toward fragments of reality,
and feel the yuragi that lives within them, I realize—
what I truly wish to say is simple:
I want to call a photograph beautiful.

​

Naoki Kimura