Gama Cave #009

"These caves are the sacred home of Okinawa’s spirits—its ancestors, its history, its memory. I enter hesitantly—through the eeriness of the cave’s dark, heavy air, through the remnants of war scattered on the ground. . . . With just a flashlight in hand, I search for anything I might find, unable to entirely illuminate my surroundings. The shutter wide open, I enter into the image, my flashlight in hand, floating and conversing with mabui [spirit] as the cave’s interior slowly seeps into the camera. What am I hearing? What can I express for them? How will these images of darkness speak to others?"–Osamu James Nakagawa