His photographs, I told them, gesturing towards the Gainsborough, were like paintings that were carefully composed and which manipulated light and darkness to create works of great beauty.
“I would like to see these photographs. Do you have any I can look at?”
“I have a magazine with three of his photos but it’s in my trunk.” I remembered standing in front of a photograph titled “Icy Night” that showed a foggy pathway with street lamps surrounded by haloes of misty light. The pathway was framed with dark, tangled tree branches, hovering overhead like the talons of flying kotengu, flying demons. The flash-lit path was covered in snow and there was a path of footprints leading away from the camera. Standing in front of that photograph in Ginza was a life-changing moment. I had felt like that path was calling me to come forward towards the lamps, towards the light, to be brave and step through the dark trees towards my true nature.
#FrankMatsura remembers the Stieglitz photograph that made him want to become a photographer. #WIPsnips #step #writesky #literaryfiction