Some images are created to illustrate what the human eye can’t envision. While the picture offers a millisecond of a moment plucked from reality, the scene is so fantastical that it leaves you puzzled. When you look at the series by photographer Asako Naruto, Reverb+Graphy, you experience similar sentiments. Her photographs portray mundane day-to-day scenes captured in the streets of Madrid, Spain, as a glimpse into the multiverse. Often, the viewer feels as if they are witnessing diverse versions of a fraction of a second. But, for Naruto, the images function as “memories and words ruminating” in her mind and a “visual afterglow” of the scenes she witnessed.
All images are by Asako Naruto. Used with her permission. For more, please visit her website or her Instagram @asako_fotografa.
Capturing Echoes of Daily Life
While Asako Naruto learned photography in college in Tokyo, Japan, it wasn’t until the pandemic that she found the medium calling to her. “With the birth of my son, I started taking photographs as a hobby in addition to documenting his growth, and suddenly, around 2020, I had a different impulse that led me to devote myself to photography,” she tells us. In her initial photographs, Naruto would often capture imaginary or suggestive motifs. “These include reflections on water or glass, shadows, and scenes seen through media such as vinyl or netting,” Naruto explains. But when asked what makes such images so captivating, she says, “I have been irresistibly drawn to images of imperfect fragments that emerge through indirect objects, or images in which the object seems to have been mistakenly translated.”
Gradually, as time elapsed, Naruto found herself wanting to visualize words such as “afterimage” and “reverberation,” an extension of the images she was already making. Naruto explains this urge using Marcel Proust’s metaphor of madeleine cakes, which today are an expression of nostalgia. She made her first image to test her concept using a kaleidoscope-type prism filter, which she bought out of inquisitiveness. “I learned to write down even a single word I wanted to express and to use a single photograph I took as a starting point to develop an image of the work I would like to shoot in the future,” she explains. One image led to another, and Naruto soon discovered the joy of “seeing something that is not in front” of her. After a sizeable sum of images, Naruto named the project Reverb+Graphy.
As a street photographer, one of the recurring elements in her images is the hues of daily life. The images, as we are told, were captured at train stations. “I like to photograph train stations the most. They are full of subjects such as people coming and going, the glow of the tracks, the shadows created by the architectural structure of the station, and the artificial lights that illuminate the station at night,” she states. Naruto often visited significant stations for this series, such as the Atocha station. Galactic Railroad in Reverberation, a mini-series in the overarching theme of Rever+Graphy, was entirely photographed here.
It is worth mentioning that Asako Naruto has received multiple international awards due to her unique perspective and persistence. Some of the accolades include the Budapest International Foto Awards, the Paris International Street Photo Awards, the ND Awards, the Monochrome Awards, and the London Photography Awards,
The Act of Making a Photograph
Naruto’s photographs are poetic despite the sci-fi element in them. The repeated lines and circles blend with the ingenuity of human form and their urban world. Naruto evokes these sentiments through a critical step in her image-making process: listening to music. For instance, while making Galactic Railroad in Reverberation, Naruto repeatedly listened to Nocturnal Moves by Jeff Mills, which helped her reach an elated state of mind. “What is particularly important in this series is the physicality of the act of photographing itself and the sense of live performance,” Naruto explains. “This work relies on the physical effect of the prism filter, so a difference in the tilt of the lens by one degree or the rotation of the filter will result in a completely different picture,” she adds. The photographs were created “through trial and error,” while the “physical sensation” helped her to make the work different than her other projects.
While her project oscillates between black and white and color, Naruto states much of it depends on the elements in the photos. “Although I generally prefer color, I do not hesitate to use monochrome when I want to emphasize a simple motif,” Asako Naruto explains. This means to highlight “the shadows created by ideal light” or to accentuate “the structure of an image.” Then, while making her selections, Naruto looks at images that can underline the narrative. “I am very conscious of creating a visual rhythm in the overall work,” she adds. Sometimes, the process alone can take a considerable amount of time. “For Galactic Railroad in Reverberation in particular, I wanted to include both chaotic elements through the amplification of motifs and introspection emanating from a single person, so I spent about three months working on the (photographs) candidates,” she adds.
Naruto uses a variety of gear for her series: a Sony a7III, an Olympus E-M1 MKIII (for rain days), a Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS, a Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG DN Art (for night photography), a Kenko Black Mist Filter (No5), NEEWER Semi-Circular Prism Filter, NEEWER Spiral Halo Filter, and Split Diopter Filter. As for editing, she uses Lightroom and often employs the NIK Collection. First, she will open Photoshop through Lightroom and then apply multiple NIK Collection tools in layers.
Asako Naruto’s photographs present us with an imperceptible realm that exists beneath our own. The surreal qualities of her pictures portray the grandeur of the modern world, where the geometric structures and glimmering lights form a symphony. While many of us are preoccupied with our personal struggles to appreciate them, Naruto’s prism effect reminds us of the delights of observing the everyday nuances. There are a plethora of stories woven into the nooks and corners of every street. Naruto urges us to shift our perspectives a little, much like her, and seek them out before they quietly vanish into obscurity.
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
