A Way of Coming Closer

OP7 lens emerged for looking closely. 
Not to escape the world, but to meet it. 

Raindrops.
A flower. 
A leaf.

At first, close-up photography seems to reveal hidden details.
Over time, something else happens.
The details were never hidden.
Attention changes.
What once appeared ordinary becomes alive with variation, relationship, and change.

The same place never remains the same.
Neither does the observer.

This project began as an optical object.
A close-focus conversion lens.

It gradually became a different kind of instrument.

A reminder to slow down.
To approach.
To notice.
To return.
Again and again.

The way is simple:

* Look.
* Come closer.
* Return another day.
* The world will not be the same.
* And neither will you.
* There is nothing to master.
* Nothing to optimize.
* Nothing to complete.

Only a relationship with place, time, and attention.

The lens simply makes that relationship easier to notice. 

The photographs become traces of those encounters, making it possible to return to them later.

^^^ Images taken with Fujifilm X100VI and OP7 

In. Out. Return. (Slightly changed.)