white by kenya hara

i just finished reading the book WHITE by Kenya Hara. it is a meditative book on the concept of white. i bought it on a whim–because i liked the title and the cover. but i ended up feeling as though the author, a famous designer and professor in japan, wrote a beautiful 75 page essay on the essence of STILL blog. imagine my surprise! here is an excerpt from the book:

 “The power of transformation is not something new; nature transforms itself continuously. It requires much energy and consistency to preserve beautiful things, so we must observe transforming nature closely, capturing its stillness while advocating its immutable and universal features…commitment is needed to preserve beauty through daily effort.”

he goes on to talk about waiting passionately for inspiring moments, being obsessed by the idea of freezing a unique image, and showing how the ordinary can be transformed into something unfamiliar and unknown. he refers to this process as “defamiliarization”. he said in 75 pages what i have been trying to say for these past five years.

winter knapweed in snow