Takashi

Mount Fuji, Japan (2017)

Takashi Nakazawa – known professionally as Takashi – has spent eight years shooting a single mountain. His photos of Mount Fuji have earned him plaudits including a win at the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards.

‘When I shot Mount Fuji for the first time, I encountered a superb view of a pure white swan crossing a lake, while the mountain emerged behind a bank of fog,’ recalls Nakazawa. ‘Since that moment, I’ve been completely fixated on this mountain.’

To capture this image, Nakazawa took up a post on a road in the Yunooku-Inokashira area to the east of the mountain, at around 1,200 metres above sea level.

With his Nikon D800 and 125mm telephoto lens in hand, he waited two hours for what Japanese photographers call the ‘Pearl Fuji’ moment, when the moon crests over the mountain.

‘Just as I was ready to shoot, some clouds covered the peak so I quickly moved to another spot several hundred metres away,’ says Nakazawa, who used a f/11 aperture and 1/50 second shutter speed. ‘Here, the moon had appeared above the clouds and the sunset illuminated Mount Fuji with a rich red colour. It was an amazing moment.’