Over a period of four years, Yu Yamauchi photographed Mount Fuji at dawn, always from the same vantage point. Six hundred mornings thus unfolded before his lens, revealing an infinite space that is never the same from one morning to the next, its colours and shapes ranging from minimalist to baroque.

What made you decide one day to take the road to Mount Fuji?
I've always travelled a lot, and every time I am struck by the irreducible gap between everyday life and life when travelling. I wanted to reconcile daily life and travel in a single place, and this is when a friend offered to lend me his lodge on Mount Fuji. I now spend five months a year there. It’s a mountain retreat with no water or electricity, built above the clouds. Clouds are like the earth’s skin; beyond, the sky is infinite, and the stars scattered in throngs. Up there, I'm in space, on a star. The symbiosis with the elements I experience in that place is unique, and has made me want to spend as much time there as possible.

Why did you specifically focus on the precise moment of sunrise?
The feeling I was just talking about - the relationship with the elements, between me as an individual and the movement of the earth and stars – grabs me most at dawn: my life feels part of the vast scale of the universe and its cycle, like a miracle. The appearance of the sun also changes the space: the wind turns, the birds sing, the clouds continue to move, it’s like watching the flow of life. My life up there, my genuine experience of the cycle - I collect rain water for example - my minimalist lifestyle, allow me to perceive that I am a part of the whole, a part of the cosmos.

The vantage point you have chosen for your photographs gives the impression that you are floating weightlessly in infinite space.
Initially, I photographed people passing by the lodge, as well as its owners, who bought this place 40 years ago. After completing this series of portraits, entitled “The people under the clouds”, I turned to the clouds themselves. I wanted to decentre my viewpoint: I took a photograph of the landscape before me, then I flipped the image - this allowed me to free my mind, to look at things differently.

How did you decide to put an end to this project? Have you found a new object of contemplation?
The end came naturally. I’m currently exploring Nishi Omote Jima and Yakushima, two islands in southern Japan: I photograph the trees; I’m again trying to find and document a relationship between the elements and me.

Dawn, Hyogo Sasayama Colissimo, 2015

Dawn, Nagano Tateshina HijiriHikaritera, 2015
Dawn, Omotesado Kagure, Dawn, 2015
Dawn, Kagoshima Yakushima Gallery, Tabira, 2014
Dawn, Tokyo Hikarie 8 / Cube 1.2.3, Shibuya, 2014
Dawn, TIME&STILE Futagotamagawa Tokyo, EPSITE Shinjuku Tokyo 2013 

Dawn, Akaaka Art Publishing