Shinichi Maruyama

"Once your brush touches paper, you must finish the character, you have one chance. It can never be repeated or duplicated. You must commit your full attention and being to each stroke. Liquids, like ink, are elusive by nature. As sumi ink finds its own path through the paper g

rain, liquid finds its unique path as it moves through air." -Shinichi Maruyama

Shinichi Maruyama is a Japanese artist who works with liquids, and not in the typical sense. He throws liquids in the air and his photography catches the moment when it spreads and the liquid collides with other liquids or even the wall. One series of his, Kusho literally means “writing in the sky” which is what it looks like. He uses to liquids to “Write with” and almost create strokes. He merges space and time in his works and makes then seem as one. His work is almost like calligraphy, but in the air.

So how does he manage to capture such beautiful moments? Maruyama uses a combination of water and ink, and as he hurls them together, he photographs this. These beautiful photos would not be able to happen if it weren’t for technology. His camera is capable of capturing these photographs with strobe light technology, which can record these events which happen faster than our naked eyes can perceive them. We see the liquids and flowing, and all as one, and the camera is able to break this down.

I love these photographs, mainly because they’re so unusual. This comes from the fact that we normally don’t see liquid frozen in motion. You wouldn't usually see this view of the world, from such a brief moment, which I think is beautiful. I love the idea of the imprmanent. But does a photo make it lose some of this beauty?

I particularly like his series entitled “Gardens” because of the interesting dialogue between the different colored paints. This series contains colored paints as well as water, and the thickness of the paints allow it to intersect more heavily. The thickness of the paints give it a different quality which really draws my eye.

Website, Article