Welcome,

On working slowly

Oliver Kearsley grew up in the north of England and moved to Sapporo in the autumn of 2011, initially to study Japanese languages at the university there. He had been making photographs since his mid-teens, mostly on a secondhand Pentax K1000 his father found at a car boot sale, but it was the particular quality of western Japanese light. The way it arrives sideways in October, pale and almost horizontal. That made him take the work seriously. He spent two winters photographing the Shakotan Peninsula before he showed the images to anyone.

By 2014 he had left the university programme and was working as a second photographer for a commercial studio in Tokyo, shooting interiors and product work during the week and spending weekends on the water in a borrowed kayak with a camera in a dry bag. Magic Fjord began as a name on an invoice that year, more practical than poetic. The first solo commission was a portrait session for a family in Norheimsund, booked through a recommendation from a colleague. Oliver still has the contact sheet from that day pinned above his desk.

The light arrives sideways in October, pale and almost horizontal.