A Bridge Between Humans and Nature: Takasago Junji / Nature Photographer

"Direct Talk"

Our guest today is photographer Takasago Junji.

"Junji Takasago's image!"

In 2022,

he became the first Japanese person to win the Natural Artistry prize

in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition,

organized by the Natural History Museum in London.

He's a world-class photographer who's traveled to over 100 countries,

with a career spanning nearly 40 years.

When you're photographing nature, once every ten years or so

you get to witness these scenes you never even dreamed of.

A photographer colleague had this to say about him.

Let's say we're out together with the same lens and equipment.

He gets pictures that I can't.

He's a wonder.

We asked Takasago about what drives him

to capture beautiful, decisive moments in nature.

A Bridge Between Humans and Nature

This was Takasago's entry

into the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Entitled "Heavenly Flamingos,"

it was taken at the Salar de Uyuni salt flat in Bolivia.

It shows a group of flamingos preening on a windless day,

the surface of the salt pan reflecting the sky like a mirror.

Takasago made six trips to the Salar de Uyuni over ten years

to capture this scene.

Flamingos are very delicate creatures.

From their perspective I'm a large figure,

and if they see me coming straight at them, it would scare them away.

So, I crouched down to make myself as small as possible,

and started slowly edging my way closer to them.

The elevation is about 3,700 meters above sea level,

and I'd kneel down and start to get dizzy.

The altitude was getting to me.

But I was more focused on

not letting this incredible moment slip through my fingers.

So I knuckled down, zeroed in, and tried to get closer.

I want to show people

that there are many more incredible moments like that out there,

somewhere on this planet we live on.

I want them to get the sense

that the Earth is still this amazing planet with much more to discover.

Takasago grew up influenced by his father's love of photography.

To learn more about cameras, he enrolled in an engineering college.

Later, while he was staying in Australia on working holiday,

the beauty of the sea inspired him to pursue underwater photography.

They had these beautiful coral reefs, this white sand, and palm trees.

I was blown away. I couldn't believe this place really existed.

It made me want to dive underwater.

And I thought, how cool would it be

if I could live my life traveling, diving, and taking photographs?

That's where it started for me.

After returning to Japan,

he garnered some praise for his underwater photography,

which led to him being hired by a publishing company.

But three years into the gig,

he had a physical scare while he was diving.

I was diving off Yonaguni Island in Okinawa

when I had this experience where I almost fainted underwater.

I don't know what happened. My diving buddy saved me.

I went to a physician specializing in diving medicine,

and they told me it was a matter of predisposition.

I asked, "What should I do?" and they said, "You shouldn't dive."

That came as a big shock to me.

I knew I couldn't go on.

So, I quit my job.

After leaving the company,

Takasago became a freelancer

with a focus on land-based nature photography.

Years later, on a trip to Hawaii for work,

he met a native Hawaiian named Kaipo.

Takasago was deeply moved by Kaipo's worldview and attitude toward life

and spent more time with him on subsequent trips.

In our conversations,

he'd always tell me about the importance of the Hawaiian word "aloha."

Aloha has many meanings, but basically it means "love," or "loving."

He'd remind me to always have aloha

in my interactions with other people and things.

That's how the indigenous people have lived since long ago.

Let's say I go diving in the ocean one day and take a picture of a fish.

That fish is alive.

Maybe later someone will come along

and happen to catch it and eat it for dinner.

But that doesn't change the fact that it has a life of its own,

and I should have a sense of respect for it,

I should photograph it with aloha.

From Kaipo,

Takasago learned about Hawaiian folklore and the local flora and fauna.

He also learned about a certain natural phenomenon.

He said to me, "Junji, have you ever heard of a night rainbow?"

Apparently, they were these incredible blessings

that you could see in Hawaii by the light of the full moon.

I'd been a pro photographer for about 15 years at that point,

and I'd been to all sorts of places,

but I'd never seen or even heard of a night rainbow.

Then three days later,

we were driving along the road at night

when the person behind me suddenly says,

"Hey, look, a rainbow!"

Could it be... a night rainbow?

We pulled over immediately, looked up at the sky,

and saw this perfect, full arch of a rainbow.

It was incredible, just like Kaipo had said.

And amazing timing.

I got goosebumps. It really blew my mind.

Meanwhile, there was a part of Takasago that

longed to venture underwater once again.

He started in the shallows, slowly acclimating his body to the water.

In about a year, he was diving with his camera.

I was in a boat off the coast of Hawaii

and we came across a pod of dolphins.

I grabbed my underwater camera and got in the water.

Most of the dolphins just kept swimming by,

but this one dolphin that was all white came right up to me.

It stared at me for a while as I tried to figure out what it wanted.

Then I looked closely and saw it had this playful look in its eyes.

I realized it wanted to play,

so I looked around

and this small coconut just happened to be floating right there.

I picked it up and threw it.

The dolphin pushed the coconut back to me with its nose,

and we played fetch for a bit.

There are many things that I enjoy about taking photographs.

But there's nothing more fun

than another living creature taking interest in you,

and getting to take pictures as you play with them.

Takasago's work has taken him to over 100 countries in the past 37 years.

He says he's noticed many changes in the natural environment,

including global warming and coral bleaching.

He remembers one encounter he had with a group of animals

that live on ice floes.

There's this area off the coast of Canada

where I've photographed seals.

The sea ice there has been melting because of rising temperatures.

After baby seals are born,

they need to live on the ice for about four weeks

before they can become independent from their mothers.

A minimum of four weeks.

But that year the sea ice melted within about two weeks after I left.

The experts told me the baby seals probably all died.

I still have the photos I took of those baby seals when they were alive.

It made me very sad to think that they didn't make it.

Global warming has gotten even worse since then,

and if I remember correctly,

last year there was no ice at all apparently.

So global warming is progressing, and the situation is quite worrisome.

Another problem affecting the environment is plastic pollution.

When plastic enters the oceans,

it breaks up into small particles over time.

These particles are then mistaken for food

and ingested by marine organisms

to the detriment of the ecosystem.

I had the opportunity to visit Midway Atoll,

which is known as a major breeding area for the Laysan albatross.

But when I got there,

I saw all these carcasses of albatross chicks strewn about.

I wondered what was going on, and when I took a closer look,

I saw lots of small pieces of plastic

clumped together around the stomach area.

Mothers feed their chicks by regurgitating food they've gathered at sea.

It seems they'd been feeding them plastic, thinking it was actual food.

So the chicks got stomachs full of plastic and would die of malnutrition.

I saw so many carcasses like that.

We humans created plastic in the first place

because we thought it would be convenient.

We've benefitted from it in our daily lives.

We still are, even today.

We should have respect for the sea and living creatures.

I want to rekindle those feelings.

If I can succeed in doing that,

maybe things like that won't happen anymore.

Takasago is also a member of an NPO

that conducts coral surveys and beach cleanups.

He also frequently gives talks on the environment.

And he says he's making efforts in his own life

to be more environmentally conscious.

If you look up, you can see I have a small vegetable garden up there.

I pick and eat from it from time to time.

Most vegetables are sold in plastic packaging, especially leafy greens.

You can't find ones that aren't in plastic.

So I try to grow what I can at home.

It's just a small reduction,

but it puts you in the mindset

and helps you keep yourself in check in other ways.

One of my mentors in Hawaii who taught me a lot once said to me

that people have two roles to play.

One is that among all the living things, humans have wisdom.

So we should use that

to make sure that all things maintain an equilibrium.

The other is the lifelong pursuit of learning to live aloha.

And I've come to completely agree with that.

We asked Takasago about

how he sees his role as a photographer going forward.

A nature photographer is an observer of nature.

As you take photos, you're watching how nature works.

The light, the environment, everything.

You "feel" nature as you take photos.

And in another sense, you're a reporter.

You're a messenger that acts as a bridge between nature and humans.

So that's what I want to focus on.

I want to capture what I see and show that to my audience.

I want them to feel what I feel.

That's what I can do.

(Do you have any words to live by?)

"No Rain, No Rainbow."

Without rain, you wouldn't have rainbows.

Basically, we experience all sorts of hardships,

but that's what leads to a rainbow appearing later.

Rainbows have long been a topic of interest for me.

There are many differences between humans and other living creatures,

and even among humans themselves.

But rainbows are like a bridge that connects our differences.

And although we face all sorts of environmental problems,

war, and so on...

I want to help us envision a brighter future

and get us on that path that gets us to a rainbow.