Photography Challenge: 52 Week January Edition

Everything Old is New Again — The Circle Game — Soft — Film Noir — Lie to me

Welcome to 2024, the Year of the Dragon according to the traditional Chinese lunar zodiac, which Japan still recognizes though — in typical Nippon style — they have taken a foreign import and made it in their own style.

In this case, although China and much of Asia hold their new year celebrations in February, in Japan both the Gregorian and Lunar calendar start on January 1st.

This year’s 52 Week Challenge here on Full Frame is off to an inspiring start. Thanks to Rodrigo S-C, and the other Full Frame editors, for another year of chances for creative expression and pushing our technical prowess!

Everything Old is New Again

The Moon is 4.53 billion years old — almost as old as the Earth itself at (4.543 b.y.o., if yu wanna know).

And so, our cosmic companion has been with us almost since the start. And yet, as every child and dreamer knows, no two Moon sightings ever appear exactly the same.

According to traditional Japanese creation stories recorded in the Kojiki, the sun goddess Amaterasu has a younger brother, the moon god Susano-o. At one point, Amaterasu gets tired of her younger brother Susano-o’s violent ways and withdraws into a cave, casting the world in darkness. It takes the efforts of eight million gods and goddesses, including naked dancers and gifts of stones and mirrors, to bring Amaterasu out again.

Source: https://www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/en/article/87667

The Circle Game

And the seasons go round and round — Joni Mitchell

In Japan, cherry blossoms represent many things, including — as every viewer of Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai knows, the fleetingness of life. In a related manner, sakura also symbolize the changing seasons: the pinky-white puffs on trees tell us that winter is over for another year; spring has arrived on the islands, and summer is on the way.

Soft

Tokyo Snow. Inokashira Koren Park, Kichijoji Tokyo.

“Soft” may not be the first thought that comes to mind when you think of snow, but the powder that occasionally falls in Tokyo — and blankets much of the rest of the country — is a particularly dry, sticky form: “champagne” powder, I’ve heard it called. This photo is from one of the rare, lasting snowfalls in Tokyo

Film Noir

Haunted Bench. Mount Pleasant Cemetary at Night.

I caught this image on film, before the days of digital cameras, and later had it scanned to jpeg. Unfortunately but predictably, the quality of the image has deteriorated over the years — and shrunk in dimensions. Still, the picture of this wrought-iron bench, which I spotted through the fence of Mount Pleasant Cemetary in Toronto, radiates a gritty, moody glow which holds the viewer’s attention.

Lie to me

“Don’t listen to touts!” to paraphrase banners, public service announcements, and even warning posters in Shinjuku’s blue-light Kabukicho neighbourhood and even scattered about train stations in Tokyo.