X100VI: Timeless value x Sam Abell/ FUJIFILM

X100VI: Timeless value x Sam Abell/ FUJIFILM

so I made a picture here in 1980 and there was a monk or priest holding a candle and there were candles all along the walkway here going up both sides and just when we started to make the picture when it was Twilight a wind started to blow and blew out about half the candles and when you see the photograph it looks like every Candle is lit but there are gaps and what the gaps do is make the picture real and it goes along with the sense of this place this history of this place a A Relic place still alive to me as a photographer because I like this sense I like this sense of imperfection and Decay and time I’m Sam Abel I’ve been a documentary photographer all my life documentary realism photography is my life so you came here in 1980 you were what 35 years years old yes at the time American young man photographer finding his way in the world and being in of all places not Tokyo not Kyoto but Hai right how what was that like I always Tred to tell people it’s not the temples and the gardens it’s the everyday life of the Japanese people how they conduct their life their civility they’re I I would say they live with high purpose and here we are we’re back here and this is the street I remember so well should we go down here let’s go down here this is that’s me on my bicycle coming that’s me 43 years ago in 1980 I went to hogi Japan and I was there by myself for 5 weeks at that time I was a a seasoned traveler I’d worked at National Geographic for 10 years I’d been around Japan silenced me how common things were done with style Grace and a sense of design I’ve never seen that before it strongly spoke to me and I would say it awakened dormant feelings that were in me of humanism I was drawn to that so 43 years have gone by and I still feel the force the influence the spirit the soul of hoggi in me and in my work I learned photography from my dad he was a high school teacher and his great lesson to me was compose the picture Samy and wait wait for something to animate it to bring it alive has been my Mantra and the foundation of my photographic practice all my life I wait for the moment and in hoggi I waited at one street corner for many days and one afternoon that Faith was proven and this is what brought me here the combination of the light and the setting that’s it that’s exactly it I I was made to come here because of the setting I was standing back there in 1980 waiting for something someone to come by and in most days that I came here nothing happened so on that particular day the day that I made this Photograph two women came by and I have a picture of them nodding in my direction like bowing and and as they spoke to each other I photographed and when they bowed I photographed I thought that I had made the picture that I’d been waiting for and I was wrong because when they bowed to each other they obscured their faces and then one of them the older of the two women reached out and affectionately touched the arm of her friend and they smiled they kind of laughed together and I was ready for that moment moment and I made this picture there’s a beautiful Harmony between people and setting and it’s emotional there’s love in this picture so I have a lifelong practice of composing the picture and waiting hi so very special that’s the picture your mother no my grandmother grandmother grandmother sorry it’s okay and her friend it’s been published many times many places and uh the reason is um the love that’s in it and um it has a an honesty an authenticity and a naturalness that’s very hard to get in a photograph so it’s a special moment in photography yeah people all over the world yes right yes I’m very um grateful oh really very grateful for um the this experience and for every experience that George has um provided coming back to hugi yeah and I think of it as my Japanese home oh really wow Generations Generations [Music] I think back to a day uh 8 years ago in my photographic life where I met you at the time I met you at first I was intimidated here was the great Sam Abel and I was about to take a class a workshop with him and I had no prior photographic experience I in fact had been in a finance background and but I I I’ll never forget the first uh critique session I had with you I tried to link a still life to a landscape and you said about my photograph uh in comparison to your example mine works yours doesn’t but one of the things he pressed upon me was the importance of the photographic Life photography is a way to be in the world not in the studio uh not at a desk looking at a computer but out in the rich of life and that’s what I wanted and in order for me to do that I have to have a camera like this honestly which is compact discreet that I feel right about not only in my hands but around my neck or on my shoulder right there for me as an extension of my connection to life right after the workshop was done I came to Japan to begin my photographic life and travel the country and I picked up um this camera here uh the x100t which was the the the version at the time and if you compare the profile with the current the new x16 it’s remarkably similar yes it is um and so as the the camera gets improved and so on and so forth I’ve been able to continue to function with this I mean I can still go out with this camera and like it’s you know like it’s yesterday and all the settings everything are right here so we know that there’s a brain inside here and it’s a digital brain but we also know that there’s respect for the history of photography which is an analog history speaking of that analog I mean that’s also something as well that Fuji was making film and so there’s these wonderful uh film simulations I know you’ve been photographing in classic Chrome um this week and there’s a new uh film simulation uh reala Ace which I’ve been using this week and it’s fascinating that it comes from the both perspectives but it’s it’s really wonderful I think that they do respect and honor the tradition absolutely they do this camera design with its fixed 35mm is a return for me and for thousands and thousands many thousands of photographers to the classical era of Photography it’s not dist Ed it’s not exaggerated and true to life and I like living with those dimensions and those possibilities the possibilities are rich you don’t need to reach for another lens to be achieving in [Music] photography I mean that looks like them doesn’t it it does look like them yeah they’ve changed I mean there’s there well I mean 43 years have gone by I mean but no that’s this is the same relationship and those are the same trees I remember that it was a stormy day a windy day and I know that I composed the picture and waited I was waiting for the children to uh exist in that frame the whole picture is alive and that’s what I want from photograph and here we are it’s a very different day the branches and the trees have grown down and changed it but this is the spot about 20 yards from the parking lot s my style completely well if you’re a compos and weight photographer that means you’re standing here you can stand here for a long time waiting for something to happen and you can’t have a heavy camera in your hands that’s a very lovable thing about this camera is its weight and its size it’s I I like its looks that’s personal I suppose I like a classic look and this is it photography that is the technical side of Photography has gotten better in my lifetime and this represents the latest Leading Edge of those improvements including camera stabilization I’ve always said this and believed it that photography is a way to be in life and I feel like both of us are living that photographic life and that photographic life is it’s a rich internal life but it’s also a rich external life hugi has a beautiful setting you know it’s ringed by mountains and and it has a lovely river flowing through it comes to this Bay there’s that Castle Hill and and then the islands it’s a perfect setting really you could live a very rich life here I think this is the right place for me my spirit my sensibility my soul is happiest [Music] here I’m interested in seeing generations of people I myself have feel like I’ve lived generations of of the photographic life in haggi I went in 1980 to the home of a renowned Potter he was near the end of his life but he was very gracious to me and served me tea in the garden viewing room 40 years passed I returned to that garden and there was his grandson who had never met his grandfather but knew him through my photographs that’s very gratifying it was gratifying to the young Potter and to me to know that photography has that power to acquaint ourselves with people we never met and photography is one of those magical ways to express time time past current time this very moment I photographed a monk for example that I had not seen in 43 years we returned to the temple I did not give a thought he would still be there honestly the temple seemed deserted to me an assistant a woman came to us and said the monk would like to have tea with [Music] you when he appeared I instantly saw that it was the same man much older his wife had died recently and he was feeling his own mortality that vanished when he realized that standing in front of him was the photographer who had made the candlelit picture 43 years earlier and so we celebrated that moment we celebrated time and life the fact that we were alive both of us going strong and still doing what we did then the photographic life is a rich life it’s rich in many ways problem solving artistic achievement but by far the most meaningful are the human connections that I’ve been able to make as a photographer and when the photograph is published or when it’s gifted to the people I see that it connects it connects Generations connects individuals it’s a way of bringing people together around a common Humanity I’m after that

“By far the most meaningful are the human connections that I’ve been able to make as a photographer.”

The encounter in Hagi City, Japan, was what changed the life of the photography master Sam Abell. This film is a returning to Hagi City, which is the root of his life as a photographer, and he rediscovers the timeless value of photography and its beauty that is loved across generations.

Camera : https://fujifilm-x.com/products/cameras/x100vi/
Photographer : https://samabell.com/
Hagi City, Yamaguchi, Japan: https://www.hagishi.com/en/

Learn more about FUJIFILM X Series & GFX : https://fujifilm-x.com
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