By Rebecca Otowa

Nine people gathered at Writers in Kyoto member David Duff’s house/library (quite impressive!) in Shimogamo to listen to a talk by the noted photographer Everett Kennedy Brown. Aside from his unusual and beautiful collodion wet-plate photography, a technique from the 19th century, he has written several books in Japanese including “Archaic Future” (ひとつながりの記憶), a collection of images from the Izumo region which began as a tribute to Lafcadio Hearn, and 京都派の遺伝子, a look at the arts of Kyoto through images and talks with eminent Kyoto artists and thinkers. He is presently working on a book in English, Kyoto Dreamtime.

Everett’s talk ranged widely from childhood experiences related to Japan (his father told him stories about bicycling around Japan as a member of the Occupation Forces after World war II) to his immersion in Shugendo training methods, including standing under waterfalls, sometimes at night, when he had spiritual experiences which allowed him to intuit energies from past ages in Japan, to his writing, including why he writes in Japanese and how this “opens the intuitive areas of the brain” (from his website). His talk concluded with a flourish on the shofar, an instrument made from an animal horn sacred to the Jewish people, which for me was connected with his experiences blowing the conch shell which is inseparable from the image of the yamabushi (mountain priest).

His talk hinted at various other interests, including organic farming, echolocation (the way human beings may locate themselves in their environment by sound), new ideas in neuroscience, and time travel. Any of these could be a talk on its own.

Everett’s website includes images of his monochromatic photographs, which are remarkable for their attention to depth of field and evocative quality of bringing to a dark, brooding life the soul of Japan as he sees it.

The gathering extended past the planned time of two hours, with John Dougill presiding and asking Everett some questions about his work, and plenty of time for participants to ask questions both formally as part of the talk, and afterwards informally.

Thanks very much to Everett Kennedy Brown for speaking on so many interesting topics, to David Duff for opening his home to us, and to Karen Lee Tawarayama for organizing.

John Dougill had prepared many questions for Everett

Everett prepares to play the shofar

For details about Everett’s photojournalism, artwork and writings, see his website here.

For his Ted Talk on landscape and memory, see here.

The Voices in Rocks, the first chapter of Everett’s novel Kyoto Dreamtime, can be read at this link of the Writers in Kyoto website.