Eiji Ohashi

Composer Toru Takemitsu had this to say about John Cage's music: “Revelation is undivided, so it is a living thing. It has various appearances. And it appears differently depending on who reads it. In the case of my photographic works, I expect that “Landscape with a vending machine” as a concrete object, through the interpretation of various viewers, will move toward abstraction and acquire a world free from the convention of photography as an undivided entity. My encounter with “Landscape with Vending Machine” began when I was living in Wakkanai, the northernmost city in Japan. Winters in the northernmost part of Japan are harsh, and sometimes there are blizzards so fierce that snow is said to be falling from below. I was driving my car in such a situation, and I did not even know where I was now. At such times, vending machines became a special part of my life, as I was relieved to finally know where I was by the light of a familiar vending machine. In Japan, “scenery with vending machines” is an everyday occurrence. Vending machines, mainly for drinking water, are a common sight in the city and even in the suburbs. It is said that this is proof that Japan is a safe country, and is a scene that would not be possible in Europe or the United States. What this scene reveals is a Japanese culture that is primarily based on the principle of sexual goodness, and a culture in which the value of working for the benefit of others takes root, even if unnoticed. Here, the vending machine functions as a human role model, and the morality of trusting a bloodless machine is established, and the vending machine can be thought of as a partner in a sense. This sense of trust is probably a uniquely Japanese value system that does not exist in the West, where God is absolute. This difference between the West and Japan (East) in terms of robots (machines) versus humans can be clearly seen by comparing the 1927 German movie “Metropolis” with the Japanese movie “Astro Boy”, In “Metropolis,” robots (machines) are in conflict with humans, while in “Astro Boy,” robots (machines) are friends. In this way, “Landscape with a vending machine” is open to various interpretations and elements, but I believe that the vending machine shining in the snowy night is the starting point for me to continue this project. I have recently come to feel that this is due to its origin, and the American geographer Yifu Tuan, who proposed the concept of topophelia in the 1970s, said the same thing. Topophelia is the idea that human beings cannot escape from their origins for the rest of their lives, but continue to be influenced by them in some way. In fact, I finally realized after more than 10 years of working on the project that the experiences I had as a child were unconsciously reflected in my work. In my childhood memories, winter in an uninsulated house was a harsh living experience, and the scenery I saw there was beautiful, an experience that in a sense contained a contradiction. It was an experience that contained a contradiction in a sense: a blizzard would create a wall of snow in front of your eyes, and everything around you would become a different world, a desolate beauty, if you will. Because of this experience, photographing on a snowy night is for me a journey into the past, a replay of memories and experiences, and a link to my own identity. The vending machine still shines even though it is buried under the snow, and I feel a sense of morality that transcends humanity.
This is because a machine that is continuously working in a harsh environment has no use for the lax morals of humans. Vending machines are machines, so they do not despair, and even though they are buried in snow, their shining appearance gives us hope. In this way, the “scenery with vending machines” can be seen and interpreted in many different ways, and we believe that by combining this with the viewer's experience, new value can be created. In this sense, “Landscape with Vending Machines” should always remain an undivided and unspoken work of art as long as it is a photographic work.