Haruki tells us that there is more to see than what our eyes can see or any cameras can capture. She erases the characteristics of the landscape or motifs to puzzle people’s mind and leads us to think outside the box.

Haruki beautifully uses the black and the white in her photographs by intentionally under or over exposing images or moving around the negatives during the printing process. The lack or exaggeration of light and shadows deconstructs our perception of objects. The artist leaves the viewer in a state of contemplation; we are now creating our own new views of the world.

In this series, the work revolves around the idea of scrutinizing rain, this nature phenomenon that is so often discarded as a nuisance in our daily lives and whose beauty is easily forgotten. We are given simultaneously two settings, a white and a black one. The black setting highlights the blue of the water, enhancing its beauty. In the white scenario, the raindrops almost disappear, we have to force our eyes to discern it. This process allows us to see nature in a new light and rediscover nature’s phenomena’s charm.

Exhibition view of “Boundaries of Photograph” 2014 © Maiko Haruki Courtesy of Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino, TARO NASU Photo by Ken KATO