Still Traveling in Search of Surprises

—

I first heard about you 20 years ago, when I was a college student.

Ishikawa

Ah yes, you mentioned that.

—

I often bought the magazine MEN’S NON-NO. The last two-page spread always had photographs and an essay by “Naoki Ishikawa,” who was my age.

Ishikawa

I remember doing that. It was called something like, “Passage of the Stars, Sea of Books.”

—

I was so jealous! Some other person my age was out traveling to far-off lands, taking photos, writing essays about his journeys, and I was nothing more than your average college student.

Ishikawa

[Laughs]

—

Of course I was moved by it, too, but mostly just a jealous college kid . . .

Ishikawa

Oh, I’m sure that’s not true! It’s interesting to hear you say it, though.

—

I’ve checked in on your career periodically ever since. And today I’m here today to ask about the four-book series about the Himalayas you published recently.

Ishikawa

I actually wanted to make a fifth book as well.

—

But the fifth will have to come later, won’t it?

You have a photo book for each of the peaks you’ve climbed—Lhotse, Qomolangma, Manaslu, Makalu. I’m a novice, but I would say your photography has changed.

Ishikawa

You think so?

—

I think this is my favorite work you’ve done so far. More of the photos leave me catching my breath.

Ishikawa

Oh, really? Thank you. I think it’s just different because the focus is on landscapes.

—

I see.

Ishikawa

I take pictures of anything and everything, and I feel it’s bad to take photographs in a way that binds you to a certain theme. So I tend to put a little of everything into my photo books. But these were dominated by landscapes.

—

But still created with the same mindset you always have?

Ishikawa

The very same. Although—up until now I’ve often worked with an older book-binder. But I published this Himalaya series with someone my own age, a designer who is also active as an author. So that was a real change.

—

The framing is different in these books.

Ishikawa

I worked together with the designer to determine the layout and select the photos, so I’m sure there’s a new feel to it compared to my previous books.

—

So your life as a explorer began in high school, when you went to India alone.

Ishikawa

It actually started earlier than that—when I was in elementary school, taking a 40 or 50-minute train to school each day, my nose in a book the entire time.

—

So you read two hours a day. Which stations were you traveling between?

Ishikawa

I took the Yurakcho line between Kotake-mukaihara and Iidabashi. I would stand in the packed train, surrounded on all sides by business suits.

—

What kind of books did you read?

Ishikawa

Books about adventures and expeditions. Books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Two Years’ Vacation, Robinson Crusoe.

—

So that’s what fueled your wanderlust.

Ishikawa

I wanted to travel the world someday. Not as a tourist would—traveling to places nobody had ever been, seeing sights no one had ever seen. I was always caught up in these grand daydreams.

—

So even though you were an elementary schooler, standing on the train you took to school every day, inside your head you were already an adventurer.

Ishikawa

I loved the idea of the unknown. As long as there were undiscovered lands, I wanted to go there myself and hear the sounds with my own ears, see it with my own eyes, and experience it all first-hand.

—

When was your first trip?

Ishikawa

I spent my winter vacation during junior high school traveling alone to Kochi Prefecture with a discount train pass and camping outdoors.

—

Did you bring a camera?

Ishikawa

I did, but it was just a normal compact camera that was sitting around our house.

—

When did you first get serious about being a photographer?

Ishikawa

My first vague foray into photography was when I was 22 years old and participated in “Pole to Pole.”

—

That’s the event where 8 men and women from around the world were recruited to travel from the North Pole to the South Pole by their own strength over the course of a year, right?

Ishikawa

Right.

—

I like your story of submitting a hiatus form in to your university and writing “To travel from the North Pole to the South Pole in one year” as your reason, only to have the school scold you for thinking you can just make up any lie you want. [Laughs]

Ishikawa

Isn’t that awful? I was specifically telling the truth.

—

But to go back to what we were talking about, up until that time, had photography always just been a hobby of yours?

Ishikawa

I always carried a camera on me when I traveled, but even on my solo trip to India in high school, I was only snapping shots with my family’s compact camera.

—

Oh, really?

Ishikawa

When I participated in Pole to Pole, I received a ton of slide flim from someone at a newspaper company. I was too poor at the time to afford using film very often, so I was elated to be able to use it as much as I wanted.

—

That’s a big deal for a young person.

Ishikawa

I think I began seriously considering photography after that time.

—

So you were interested in traveling before you were interested in photography. Did you gradually make your start as a photographer at that turning point?

Ishikawa

The newspaper worker told me to make sure I use up an entire roll a day. I’d always tried use film sparingly, so it was hard trying to take 36 whole pictures in a single day.

—

I see.

Ishikawa

I started out trying really hard every single day to search for suitable subjects to take pictures of, and over time it slowly started to feel more natural. I had such deep regrets whenever I couldn’t take any photos on a particular day.

—

But how can you take pictures if there’s nothing around you to photograph?

Ishikawa

I don’t think I actually lacked anything to photograph. If it were the case now, I think I’d have just overlooked the opportunity for my body to naturally react to something around me.

—

So you first started photography through self-study.

Ishikawa

Yeah. I’d traveled down the Yukon River in Canada and climbed Alaska’s Denali, otherwise known as Mt. McKinley, but I didn’t know a thing about photography or how to use a camera. I’ve always loved photography, though, so after returning from Pole to Pole, I attended a photography school for a year.

—

So it’s already been about 17-18 years since then.

Ishikawa

Time sure flies.

—

Did it feel like not much time had even passed before that daydreaming elementary schooler became an experienced world traveler?

Ishikawa

I can’t believe how fast it’s all happened.

—

I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of miles you’ve traveled.

Ishikawa

I can’t even imagine what the number would be. And I’ve got quite a lot of airline miles.

—

You must ride a lot of things besides airplanes. You’ve talked about riding a big ship to reach the South Pole, feeling as if you’d be thrown from a dogsled racing through the North Pole, and getting jostled around atop a camel in Pakistan.

Ishikawa

I’ve ridden everything and everything.

—

Is there anywhere you haven’t gone yet?

Ishikawa

No.

—

Not at all?

Ishikawa

If you’re talking general areas, I’ve gone to basically all of them. And I’ve been to every prefecture in Japan except for Saga Prefecture.

—

Saga wasn’t in the cards, huh? [Laughs]

Ishikawa

I’d like to visit there soon. I heard they have an interesting festival.

—

What kind of festival is it?

Ishikawa

For the marebito (stranger). I have a series of photographs based on that theme.

—

I’m sure you’ve got a lot of traveling still ahead of you.

Ishikawa

I’m sure I do. But when it comes to my “vertical journeys,” I think the next K2 climb will be my last.

—

You’re done climbing?

Ishikawa

I am.

—

K2 is the second tallest mountain in the world after Everest, right?

Ishikawa

Right. Mountainclimbers really love it, and the mountain itself looks really cool. It’s also significantly more difficult to climb than Everest, and three out of every ten people die trying to climb it.

—

It’s really that dangerous?

Ishikawa

Well, that’s just a statistic.

—

And after that, you won’t climb mountains anymore?

Ishikawa

I’m closing that chapter.

—

When will you climb K2?

Ishikawa

June 2015.

2016-12-06-Tue

BACK | Part 1Part 3 | NEXT