Imagination Muse – Kazuma Momoi

August 1, 2006

Imagination and expression are tools for progressive creativity. Deep contemplations that transcend the human condition and reveal a world that our short-lived struggles can only idealize.

Onboard until Singapore, guest educator and photojournalist Kazuma Momoi has provided many participants with a unique experience. Through moving stories of his many journeys, late night discussions about the gift of life, an undertone of the spiritual, and the powerful use of images, he has spoken to his audience between the lines every time.

Following are some excerpts from a conversation I had with him…

I think many people experienced something like a spiritual journey when they saw your slideshow – do you feel spiritually motivated in your work?

I am a Christian but I’m also interested in Animism and have met with shamans and medicine men for many years. When I saw the Francis Coppola film Koyaanisqatsi, I had a revelation. Koyaanisqatsi means “out of balance” in Hopi language. I decided to visit the Hopi people in Arizona and met with a chief. He had no water supply, no electricity, so we talked in the dim light of a stove.

The darkness is a frightening force for humans because in it we become more sensitive to a realm beyond our understanding. Koyaanisqatsi shows how the world has been developing. Now with 24 hours of light, humans have become egotistic. We think we’ve conquered the darkness.

Darkness helps human imagination. Photography is the same. If you don’t have imagination you will never understand photography.

How is imagination important for peace?

I have been going to places of conflict for my work. I have seen bloodshed, explosions, everything. There is never a moment when there isn’t war somewhere in the world.

We have a proverb in Japanese that says, “Those who believe peace exists are naïve”. I like to add to this proverb, “but those who do not work towards peace have not earned the right to exist.”

At the end of a long road is peace. Humanity is always walking towards that peace. It is an ideal, a utopia. It doesn’t exist except in our hopes but without it we have no direction.

One of the things that really moved me about your presentation was that I felt a powerful despair and a powerful hope in your expression.

Ying-Yang

Yes, really extreme and passionate ying-yang. Do you have hope for the future of humanity?

I don’t think there is any meaning in thinking about the future. We should have hope for the next week or the next year, but it’s meaningless to have hope for humanity. We should try our best in the present.

The night of this conversation, Momoi-san screened Koyaanisqatsi at 1am. As the audience entered the theatre, he was sitting in a dark corner wearing a gold robe and a gold and blue wrestler’s mask, his eyes sparkling from behind mesh screens. He was hunched over his laptop and was typing furiously. What he wrote was projected onto a screen. Next to this screen Koyaanisqatsi began to play. His words conjured the whispered musings of a shamanic poet.

You can visit Momoi-san’s website to view his photos here. 

Comments

Kya, What a fantastic interview.
Darkness helps human imagination. Koyaanisqatsi...I gotta pick it up!

[john einarsen]

Hi kya --
I show koyaanisqatsi to my classes every year. So glad o see you connecting many things to your reports. John

Kazuma seems like an enlightened soul. Why are there so few of them inhabiting this planet? Because most of the time people are talking to their minds and are trapped in either the fiction of a past or the illusion of the future. We are ourselves when, like Kazuma, we are truly present. May the Peace Boat sail on beautiful and calm waters and in its wake spread the spirit of understanding and compassion on this and all future voyages.