At first, I thought I needed to establish certain methods to photograph Buddhist sculptures. Facing a Buddhist sculpture, you pray with folded hands. It depends on how it is positioned whether you stand or kneel to pray.

I am 170 centimeters tall. Since the height is average among Asian peoples, I thought my eye level must be the the eye level of majority of worshippers of Buddhist sculptures. So I decided to always set the camera at my eye level when photographing them regardless whether I stood or knelt.

The method is naive, I should say, but I thought it most appropriate for me.

Another basic method concern was what tools would be needed to photographically best reproduce Buddhist sculptures most effectively. To do this you must capture the details most clearly. I thought this necessitated adoption of large-format cameras.

As to lighting, I tried to avoid artificial light and depend on available or natural-looking light wherever possible.

I kept using these methods while photographing of Buddhist sculptures except on a few occasions.

Copyright 1996 Kansai Power Net/designed by Ingram Design Studio. All photographs are the property of the photographers and the agencies.