New Memories
Born in Aomori, a cherished region in northern Japan, my life’s journey has taken me through Tokyo and to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I’ve lived for two decades. Despite the distance, my memory of my hometown has always remained vivid. In 2007, I felt drawn back to Aomori to capture its present scenes with my large format camera. Since then, I’ve revisited to explore memories and update my experiences across different seasons and activities. Though often seen as economically modest, Aomori’s natural beauty, especially its unique luminous light, is exceptional.
New Memories is a visual tribute to the ethereal beauty of Aomori and its seasonal rituals intertwined with nature—from cherry blossom picnics and summer bathing to apple harvesting and snow-laden landscapes. These rituals embody a quiet resilience, a spirit of living with hope in subtle nuances.
Each return to Aomori deepens my memories, blending the present reality with echoes of the past, which are also refreshed by revisiting old family photographs taken by my father. The catastrophic events of March 2011 further shifted my perspective. What began as an exploration of the past has evolved into a vision for the future—a hope for Aomori’s cultural richness to endure and be vibrant in a nuclear-free world.
Hiroyo Kaneko
2025