Past Masters and Expressive Photography: Hokusai

A divine painter

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By Francesco Carovillano | July 18, 2023

Francesco Carovillano

Through nature and image-making I keep discovering who I am. The more I grow older, the more these two things merge together.

I’m a full-time landscape photographer mainly working in the forest of Fontainebleau, France.

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Nowadays, psychologists know that creative adults are those who managed to reconnect with their childhood interests and delve deeper into those passions after the turbulent times of adolescence. Studying Hokusai, it seems he never lost that connection.

Dante Alighieri, in his Divine Comedy, having lost his way within the depth of a mid-life crisis, meets and departs on an imaginary journey with his mentor, Virgil, a poet who lived 1000 years before him and whom he greatly admired. I have always liked this idea to do some introspective work with the imaginary help of a revered master from the past. I figure that if I’d ever find myself in Dante’s situation, I would probably picture Hokusai as my Virgil and would trust him to put me back on the right path.

Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. ~Dante Alighieri, the beginning of his Divine Comedy

Hokusai retained the playful attitude and innate ever-blooming curiosity of a child throughout his life. Nowadays, psychologists know that creative adults are those who managed to reconnect with their childhood interests and delve deeper into those passions after the turbulent times of adolescence. Studying Hokusai, it seems he never lost that connection. He always felt a deep fascination with the world and a profound love for his craft, always wanting to understand the world and evolve through it. Curiosity is everything. For this reason, and for all the information about him in this text, in Dante’s situation, I would follow Hokusai.

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